


Levels

by losing_sanity_fast



Series: Adventure-seeker Gon in the Cyber Dungeon quest! [1]
Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: AU, Aged-Up Character(s), Ambiguous/Open Ending, Body Horror, Don't copy to another site, Don't repost, M/M, Normal Ending, POV Alternating, and horror elements, but i might write an epilogue, but not too much because i'm not about that life, cyber horror, dark architecture AU, edit: i wrote it an epilogue so well, nothing ambiguous about it XD, or some small part two, sort of a slowish burn, sort of again, they are in their mid twenties, with cyber punk elements, yeah so... how do i describe this au XD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-28
Updated: 2019-08-06
Packaged: 2020-03-26 11:32:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 22
Words: 40,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19004929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/losing_sanity_fast/pseuds/losing_sanity_fast
Summary: Killua's bored witless with his daily life so he indulges in an extreme sport to kill time. One day he stumbles upon mysterious art.Gon has not heard from his father in years, and a debt to Aunt Mito keeps him put. He tries to channel his energy otherwise, but he is only biding his time. The world below calls to him.





	1. Prologue: Level ???

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is an experiment in a more careful writing style, you tell me if it paid off.  
> The whole story is mostly driven by a certain feeling and aesthetic. And in a sense it's a homage to my favourite manga of all time Blame!. I love all early Nihei comics and with this fic I wanted to acknowledge that. But it's not a crossover, just my humble tribute to the beauty that is [Nihei's art](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=tsutomu+nihei&t=lm&iax=images&ia=images). 
> 
> Many people supported me in writing this, and fate knows I needed this support because I was very depressed and had a severe writing block.  
> First and foremost I'd like to thank my super talented friend **[Joolita](https://twitter.com/joolita3)** who always cheers on me and is ready to read any idiocy I write. I couldn't have written it without you.  
> I'd also like to thank my wonderful beta readers **[glittercracker](https://archiveofourown.org/users/glittercracker)** and **[kigamin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kigamin)** who made this story so much better. They are both wonderful writers and I highly recommend all their stories <3  
> And lastly huge thanks to the organisers of the Hunter x Hunter big bang, you're amazing. And to all the people in the writer's discord server for your advice and support, I love you all <3 
> 
>  The fic is finished, I'll be updating a chapter every Tuesday and Friday.
> 
> _I'm not a native speaker of English so the language is what it is, my betas did their best._

* * *

 

Turning the head - his head? he wondered… yes it was his - did not come easy, and the range of motion was limited. It did dislodge some wires though. They slid down his cheek, like hair.

He could see just a narrow sliver of the space they were in. A draft come from below. Several doors led here, if he remembered correctly. It had been a while since they moved. How long a while? He could not recall.

In his line of vision was a stretch of a tile floor. Large ceramic pieces of at least four hues arranged randomly. He had looked at them many times, he detected no pattern. His gaze did not reach too far, he could only see the floor and the foot of a column. If he wanted to peer at anything beyond that he had to switch to the cameras. Then he could find the point where the floor met with the wall. It had wallpaper of undulating lines and sort of circular shapes. Not precise though, it seemed organic.  Again he was sure there were several colours on the wallpaper. He was not sure which ones though. The weak orange light that seeped through the doorways blended with the sharp blues of the electronics behind and above him. The room had an odd grayish glow to it.

He switched back to his organic vision. Out of the corner of his eye he could still see his helmet. The worthless thing was covered in dust. Some of it was from the outside. It was real dirt, from when they stepped out on the ground level. The wind was so violent it instantly splayed them on the walls, covering them with a fine sticky layer. The filters in their helmets gave out after fifteen seconds. The air was just that toxic. They got back inside in under a minute.

The dust on the helmet comprised also shed skin cells now and whatever the draft slowly blew into the room.

* * *

 


	2. Chapter 1: Level -15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Killua likes to risk his life, Alluka rolls her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today I'm posting the prologue and the chapter 1 together, because the prologue is way too short.

* * *

 

The strange nature of the rifts made them a little brighter at night, as the artificial light from the platforms above penetrated deeper and more intensely than sunrays. The bluish glow illuminated the top levels exposing an odd winding maze of metal and concrete slabs, pipes creating bizzare 3D shapes not unlike high art, and endless vines of cables coiling treacherously.

The wires had claimed numerous victims over the years, since they had the insidious tendency to suddenly come loose and droop or swing between the walls of the rift. Thanks to them, the geography within the cracks was always shifting. They posed the biggest threat apart from the winds which could get really harsh and changeable down there. Narrower rifts had less of a breeze but the risk of cables obstructing the way was higher.

Another looming threat came from releases of boiling steam or noxious gasses that happened haphazardly from tiny holes, difficult to spot from afar. The walls were riddled with them, seemingly at random.

Descending into the labyrinth of the rifts was illegal, and theoretically impossible. The platforms on the sky level, and the bridges connecting them, were all fenced or even covered completely. And each person learned from an early age that falling into a rift meant death. The cracks ran kilometres deep and with the gusts of wind blowing sometimes with tremendous strength, there was no guarantee anyone or anything would fall straight down. Their life ended and their remains were impossible to retrieve. Thus people said that whatever the rifts claimed was lost forever.

Killua knew this all to be true from experience. He had lost equipment and rivals to the dark chasms. He had run from the patrol bots and a few times from actual human police. He had seen others pay fines or even get arrested as he hid in the architecture.

That had never deterred him from going there, though. Neither had it kept others away. Airboard races took place there regularly, participants coming up with more and more daring routes. Bets ran high among the spectators in the adrenaline bars. It was one of few even remotely gripping diversions for the blasé sky dwellers, as life on the lavish green platforms was insufferably dull.

The speed of the airboard and the violent resistance of the winds served as Killua’s cures for the boredom. A reprieve from his uninspiring job in his parent’s energy company. He wasted five years of his life studying physics and engineering just to be sat behind a desk. Not in a lab designing new things. No, that was too crude for his family’s tastes. People who owned a whole sky platform did not have to get into the nitty gritty of things, they were born to supervise. Killua could only enviously look through the glass as his employees were doing exciting things with lasers or new, top secret materials. He could read their research, as a meager consolation prize.

Canary, his former university senior, and current chief engineer of his R&D division, sometimes took him for lunch to chat about the work. Consult with him on the research. It was a courtesy on her part, because he just could not come into the lab and geek out with them. The boss hovering around made people nervous. Though Killua suspected she had an ulterior motive in her willingness to indulge him, as Alluka often came to eat with him. And Canary was making sweet eyes at his baby sister rather overtly. Since Alluka did not mind the flirtation he was going to shamelessly milk these scarce opportunities for any interesting talk about job related subjects.

These circumstances left him with no other choice but to pour all his energy into his hobby, airboard racing. He had developed it during his university years. With the help of Alluka’s design skills he perfected the Whirlwind, his custom airboard and suit set.

Alluka found his racing troubling, but she decided it was better to help him and make him safer than leave him on his own with it.  She never watched, though, making an excuse that the multiple camera feed in the adrenaline bars made her too dizzy. Killua suspected she just preferred not to see him fall to his death.

He respected her fear, even if he felt his reputation should have awarded him some trust. He never slipped below the top five in the ranking. Successful enough to have fans and even wannabe groupies. He never indulged them, tough, as his privacy was more important to him than the interest of strangers. He hid under his Godspeed identity and the full body suit covered in lightning designs. It was better no one knew a Zoldyck was partaking in such extracurriculars. The press would have descended upon him like flies, putting him in hot water with his father, who would have despised this slight to the family honour. Anonymity was not uncommon among the participants, so no one begrudged him his secrecy. Killua suspected the airboarders frequently recruited from among the most prominent platform dwellers.

This season had been particularly kind to him. Early on he had assumed a comfortable lead in the general ranking, so he could take some of the races easy, if he did not feel particularly excited by their routes. Especially when the situation was plummeting, as the airborders said. One of the racers cheated by dislodging a massive nest of coils which then blocked the officially designated route. Everyone had to find a detour and Killua risked one rift no one else dared. At the level of the race it was narrow, but he could see it got wider below. He did not want to tip anyone off to that fact so for the first few meters he braved the divide between the pillars that was barely wide enough for him to outstretch his arms. He dove down as soon as he was certain no one was following. He hoped he would make up the time, without the distraction of the other racers.    

That was when he noticed it.  

An unusual thing like that instantly piqued his curiosity - Alluka had made some cat comments before he left to explore it further and forced him to wear the cat helmet, something she created to tease him. He donned it pouting, he was never going to tell her he secretly loved it.

[](https://mornintide.tumblr.com/post/185924574255/inspired-by-hxhhasmysoul-and-her-fic-levels-i)

_Art by the super talented and amazing[Jeng](https://mornintide.tumblr.com)_

He came back to the rift a few hours after the race, not on the airboard this time, but on his bike. It had a few advantages over the board in non-competitive contexts. A more potent battery was the obvious one, and it required less general effort to handle in the wind, being heavier and having a stronger engine. It was also equipped with a jammer. A highly illegal device making the bike and its pilot invisible to the police drones and cameras. Another particularly useful feature constituted two strong headlights, with regulated position and intensity.

Killua used them to illuminate the wall. A few minutes passed before he found the right spot, so much so he began to wonder if he had imagined the whole thing. But there it was. Graffitti. A huge sunflower, at least three metres in diameter, wider than his bike. A pipe painted green made for its thick stalk, leaves were drawn sprouting here and there. When he reached the bottom end of the conduit he was greeted by more flowers. Some very realistic, like the first one he saw, others clearly fantastical. He descended slowly, sweeping the wall with his light, finding more and more floral marvels.

He felt like a child again, when he and Alluka ran around the huge gardens which covered their platform. They used to play there all the time, hiding from servants and their other siblings. Something always bloomed there, regardless of the season. Birds, bugs, frogs and other critters populated the air and the ponds.

A gust of wind brought him back to reality. It took some effort to steady the bike and not get slammed into the wall. Holding on and maneuvering the machine made Killua aware of how little energy he had left. Work, prepping his gear, the race itself, and then this little excursion, meant he had not had a moment of proper rest in almost twenty hours.

Killua decided to go back home. The hour was not late anymore but not yet early and he needed at least a few hours of sleep, so as not to doze off in his office. He suspected no one would find out if he did, but his team did not seem to respect him much as it was. There was no need to feed their dismissive opinion of him further.

 

*****

 

Alluka was sleeping in the living room when he came home. His shuffling by the door woke her up, undoubtedly that was why she chose the couch instead of her own bed.

“Have you found it?” she asked him as soon as he entered. “I looked through your race feed earlier and I’m not sure I could see anything, it was so blurry.”

“Yeah, I did. It’s not just one flower. It’s metres deep. Only plants as far as I have seen, although I have not found the bottom.” Killua turned on a projector and pulled up his recordings  from the bike and the helmet.

“It’s amazing,” Alluka said, slowly scrolling through the video. “Who made this and why?”

“I wish I knew...” Seeing it all again projected onto the living room wall gave him shivers. The graffiti was mesmerizingly beautiful and eerily mysterious. “I’ll go there tomorrow and explore some more, maybe deeper.”

“Do you think maintenance did this? I thought bots performed most of the work down there.”

“From what I’ve heard people rarely go down there, only if there is some serious problem. I mean, there are the archaeologists...” he said without much conviction.

“I thought they rummage for artefacts within the pillars. There is nothing to be found on the outer walls.”

“Yeah, it makes so little sense.” Killua yawned.

Alluka mirrored him. She was as beat as he was, and she too had work in the morning.

“It might be some extreme alternative art project,” she said as she was dragging her blanket to her room. “I’ll check the net, the communities my art academy buddies frequent.”

“That’s a good idea. Good night.”

It was actually past sunrise so he blackened the windows and dropped onto the bed.

Sleep came almost instantly and he dreamt of the Zoldyck platform. Of running after Alluka in the gardens. But the flowers were huge. The stalks rose as high as trees.

The dew falling from the leaves and petals they disturbed was like as if a whole pond of water splashed next to them. It was scary, Killua was not sure whether they would be able to escape the liquid if they got caught up in it.

Soon he could not see the house when he looked behind. Just a myriad of colours around him.

Alluka looked different than usual, he could not pinpoint it exactly. Something about the way she moved. Maybe. Or was it how her wings gently undulated?

And then she took flight. He went after her. They were suddenly over an endless meadow.

He woke up.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it. Next chapter on Friday. Thank you for reading <3  
> The stunning art was created by my super talented friend Jeng, please click the art to be taken to their tumblr <3


	3. Chapter 2: Level -14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Killua can't go back to business as usual.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter still has Killua's pov. Gon's pov will be in the following chapter. Generally the pov usually lasts for two chapters and then changes.

* * *

The mural haunted him all day. For the first time he was not solely concentrating on counting minutes until he could leave the office. His thoughts drifted to the flowers and he replayed the footage he shot the previous day a few times. 

At lunch Alluka informed him that her research into the thing had yielded no results. There had been some artists who had attempted to paint in the rifts, but the environment was too dangerous for most. Even the most daring did not go this deep, or this grand. Some of the airboarders tagged their vertical conquests but they just sprayed their names or simple symbols. 

“I could search some more,” Alluka offered when the waiter took their dessert order. The very fancy restaurant shared the same platform as their corporate labs, in an upscale commercial area. The decor was antique, about two hundred years in the past, with artefacts displayed on the walls and in the tables. The most exclusive element yet was the human staff: only the most expensive places still had that, cooks supervising the robots and servers interacting with the guests. 

“It may sound strange, but I’d rather you wouldn’t.”

She looked at him curiously. 

“If you do, someone might take interest, and I’d prefer to investigate it alone.” He was not even sure himself why. But the art was calling to him, provoking him to come back to it. He did not need a crowd of bored platformers snooping around down there. 

“I get that.” She nodded. 

They continued their desserts in silence.

“What do you think these murals are made with?” Killua asked suddenly.

His sister stopped eating for a moment and chewed at her spoon.

“Hard to say, maybe only with sprays? Maybe also brushes? I’ve never worked with this large a painting. I guess this heavily depends on the resources of the artist. If I tried to do something like this I’d probably invest in an all-colour spray.”

“A what?”

“It’s a device consisting of a tank, hose and a dispenser. The tank is divided and holds the three primary colours, and mixes them according to your needs. The paint is very concentrated so you can cover a lot on one tank.” She smiled seeing surprise in his face. “We used them to mark the floors and walls in the power plant I helped design last year. I got to play with one to test them, before we committed to a larger acquisition. It was pretty neat.”

“Oh, sounds pretty fun.” 

“It was, I have pictures somewhere.” She quickly connected to her personal cloud and sent him some. They were of a wall covered with a complex pattern of geometric shapes, Alluka liked intricate designs.

[](https://mornintide.tumblr.com/post/185895460995/inspired-by-my-good-friend-hxhhasmysoul-and-her)

_Art by the super talented and amazing[Jeng](https://mornintide.tumblr.com)_

 

*

 

The few hours he had left in the office he used to check out where the company stored the all-colour spray. They kept it in a warehouse about a hundred platforms away. It could be delivered through the cargo chutes in about two hours. He ordered one and several spare tanks to his office. The privilege of being the CEO’s son was that no one even batted an eye at this bizarre request. 

Then he doodled a little. He had not drawn anything in years, probably the last time he did was before university. There was no denying he got rusty.  It surprised him how disappointed he felt about his deteriorated skill. He used to draw together with Alluka all the time when they were kids. 

An afternoon of practice got him to a point where he felt adequate. On paper and touchscreen at least. Would it even translate into what he planned to do? 

 

*

 

Rift air currents blew quite strongly that evening. The bike was unusually unwieldy, the higher weight should have made it more resistant to the fickleness of the wind, but it was not distributed well so in the end it made manoeuvring harder. In these especially unforthcoming conditions he was trying to actually land somewhere. 

Killua was questioning what came over him to attempt this in the first place. He had never done that in the rifts, not on the bike, or even on the airboard. He had clung to the walls a couple of times, but that was it. And large horizontal spaces were uncommon in the rifts. The ones he could see relatively close to the mural had bannisters or awnings, making them trickier to put the bike down. 

His first try was too tentative, he missed the landing spot by quite a few metres. So he circled around for a second try. He estimated it better, but the off-balance bike caught on a rusty railing and instead of a clean touchdown Killua got gracelessly slammed into the wall by a side gust. The saying went that every landing you could walk away from should count as successful. Killua felt that this one could only be considered such if his equipment survived. 

He shot hooks out of the bike to secure it to the wall and the landing spot. Only then did he start to unpack. Wrapping the spray and the airboard in extra insulation seemed to have paid off. Once he secured the spray tank on his back, he tried a few colours on the nearby wall and some pipes. It worked fine. 

Next he strapped on the airboard. His centre of gravity was different than usual, so he spent half an hour just flying around, getting used to the new setup. 

Nothing was left to do after that, but to indulge in his most idiotic idea yet. He flew close to the wall and started hovering there as steadily as he could. Being this close to the walls was generally advised against, one could get easily slammed into one and break the airboard or bump one’s head. 

He, however, was one of the world’s best airboarders, and if some anonymous person could fly well enough to create square metres of art, Killua was not going to give up before he tried. 

The board shifted constantly as it hovered so he needed to compensate with his hips and knees. He tried to balance as automatically as he could to be able to concentrate on what his hands were doing. First he attached a strong light source to the wall above the area he planned to paint on. Then he crossed the rift and stuck a projector on the opposite side. It displayed his design next to the flower. Finally he flew lower and turned on the spray device. 

Painting on a surface this large, even while using a regulated spray strength and having a sort of virtual stencil, took time. He tried to be precise, so he could not stay by the wall constantly, he had to move away to check the proportions, especially because he tended to get in the way of the projected image. Again and again he made careful re-approaches to continue. It prolonged the whole process.

The end result came out more cartoonish then he had planned. It did not exactly fit the style of the flowers. On the other hand it was a dragonfly, unmistakably.  For a first try he found it satisfying. 

Killua flew back to his bike and packed up his gear. When he looked back at the wall, he could see the insect flying towards the sunflower and that felt right. So many creatures lived in a garden, flowers without them seemed pointless. 

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and for the kudos and comments. I appreciate them all <3  
> I hope you're still enjoying this story.
> 
> Look at the beautiful art I got, please click on it and reblog on tumblr! They deserve all the love!


	4. Chapter 3: Level -17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gon's life suddenly gets interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally a chapter from Gon's pov. I liked devising his back story and situation here, I hope it works.

* * *

 

The Blue Planet Antiques had their shop next to expensive boutiques on one of the upscale platforms. The front was run by the always charming Cookie and it was the epitome of exclusive, from the designer shelving to the exorbitant price tags. Bisky wanted it intimidating, so that only true customers would dare enter, not some curious randos who would just browse. She always repeated that she did not run a museum, but a business. The shop reflected its owner, Gon always thought, both in character and appearance.

Working there was a little amusing, but mostly frustrating. He felt out of place there, even though he never interacted with the clientele. He came in through the back door and stayed in the storage and workshop area, where he prepared the artifacts for display. It was a rather thankless, low paid job, but most importantly not what he wanted to do with his life. However, this was as much as he could get when it came to working with artifacts at all.

He could not be an archeologist, not after the disaster he had brought upon himself when he was twelve. At least that’s what everyone thought. Mito in particular disapproved of him going into the pillars ever again, trying to follow in Ging’s footsteps. Gon felt it was all unfair. He was a grown up, and knew better now than to throw himself unprepared into the depths of the pillars or wander off on his own away from the fully equipped team. He was aware how much food he would need to take, not to starve himself to death in the barren architecture.

While Mito accepted those arguments when they discussed this, she also pointedly looked at his right arm. He tried to appeal to her reason then, that it was a 3D printed copy regrown from his own cells, it was exactly the same as the original. There was almost no scar left where it was attached to the stump. And now that it had fully assimilated with his other tissues it was at least as strong as the left one. Making those arguments, though, only resulted in an awkward situation when the word “debt” hovered between them, unspoken. The new arm for him had cost Mito quite a lot, she decided on it even though a bionic one would have been provided free by the state healthcare system. She wanted him not to have to deal with the immunosuppressive meds and numerous refittings he would have had to endure as he was growing. He was thankful to her for this sacrifice… but it also bound him to her wishes.

As did her general worry. Ging was presumed dead at this point, no one had seen him in years. Gon did not believe that, but his aunt did. Her fear of losing Gon was obvious. She could not sleep when he was away for the night, despite him telling her that he went to spend time with his friends. Maybe he was that bad at lying? And maybe she knew that if he left for the night he was actually going into the top levels of the pillars. At least she did not know about flying in the rifts, Gon was certain she would not like it one bit.

She left him an out, theoretically. According to her he would be ready to go down the pillars, when he saved somebody, like he had been saved all those years ago. How he was supposed to accomplish that without going into the pillars she had not said.

If Mito’s emotional blackmail for him to never enter the pillars again was not enough, there was no one to teach Gon how to become an archeologist. His father was a ghost, a legendary figure people spoke about but few had ever seen. Out of the two archeologists he knew personally, Bisky said she had retired from active artifact hunting, and Kite felt so guilty about what had happened all those years before, he was not willing to cross Mito.

When Gon explored the top levels on his own, he came across other people now and then. Not all of them posed a threat necessarily, but everyone knew not to approach anyone in the architecture without a very good purpose. The inhabitants of the top parts of the pillars were often harmless oddballs, but some could be vicious. Artifact thieves roamed there too. Thus all archeologists were armed and alert. All in all not the best place to make friends.

Sometimes he considered getting a stable job. He knew how to fly in the rifts so applying for a position in maintenance or aerial police would make sense. Stable government employment meant regular paychecks. He could move out then. Mito would let him, because she would assume that he finally gave up and got his act together. It seemed appealing, but it felt like it would just take him even further away from his goals.

Not that his current situation had much promise either.

 

*

 

The art project was a strange distraction he indulged in. In one of the pillars he explored he had found an old industrial paint factory. Neither the archaeologists nor the residents had any interest in it.

It was full of serviceable paint.

First Gon just drew in the production hall. Testing the hues. He used to like drawing, it was a large part of his rehabilitation after getting the new arm. He gave it up when he finished school. Doodling used to be his salvation from classroom tedium, but when he was working he could not devote time to that anymore.

While painting in the abandoned factory, he found an old cargo bay, where the paints used to be loaded on airships and sent away to buyers. The bay door led outside to a small runway. Above and below stretched unlimited canvas. He just needed to find his airboard, another relic of his teen years, and see if it would work in the rifts.

The theme came to him naturally. The rifts were almost completely devoid of life, especially of plants.

For a couple of years it occupied most of his free time. In the rifts he felt like he was the only person in the world. Free from the complications of his normal life.

It was the most curious thing when one day the flowers he drew attracted insects, birds and frogs. A few critters added every week.

Gon really wanted to find the person or people doing this. He checked for them whenever he came to paint himself, but it soon became clear they worked at night. Stalking someone after sundown required planning to avoid trouble at work or with Mito.

On the first night he tried that they did not show up. He only spotted them on the third try. They came around midnight, on an airbike, then switched to an airboard. Gon observed for a while how gracefully they moved in the punishing winds of the rifts. He was also curious about their equipment. On the other hand he wanted to know what they would paint today. So he waited, and kept his distance.

 

*

 

It was way into the night and the mysterious painter only now got to a stage that resembled the finishing touches. To his horror Gon dozed off a couple of times. He needed to leave his hiding spot and engage with the stranger or he ran the risk of falling asleep and missing the window of opportunity to talk at all.

The amount of care they put into their art was impressive, it felt like a crime to affect their concentration. Dangerous, too. Now that Gon decided to act another problem presented itself: how to approach the stranger without startling them. What if they lost control of their airboard and fell into the rift?

Gon made a few laps, flying a little aimlessly, pondering his predicament. Then his gaze landed on the bike sitting on what looked like a part of an old bridge. He could wait there. The stranger was bound to go back to their bike and they would see Gon from the distance, a perfect set up.

He carefully touched down and sat next to the bike. The machine fascinated him a little. It was cutting-edge and very well maintained. Gon was beholding it when suddenly he was hoisted up by an arm and thrown back a few metres until the rift wall stopped him. The stranger landed next to their bike and pulled out a gun from some compartment by the seat. They aimed it at Gon.

“Wait,” Gon shouted through a mike in his helmet. “I mean you no harm.” It sounded a little silly as the stranger was actually the one acting in a threatening fashion. But people usually did that out of fear. “I was just curious.”

“About?” They lowered the gun, but did not put it away.

“Who are you… and why are you adding things to my painting?” Gon carefully got up, but did not start his airbord.

“Your… you painted the flowers?”

“Yes.”

“Alone?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow.” The stranger hid the gun and took off their board, to attach it and the rest off their equipment to the bike. “It’s a very cool mural,” they said while doing that. Then they came up to Gon and extended their hand. “I’m Killua.”

“I’m Gon.” He shook it.

“Nice to meet you and all, but it’s late, I need to go home, Gon,” they said going back to the bike.

“Oh… but I wanted to talk to you…”

“I’d like that too, when will you be here next time?”

“Tomorrow maybe… I come at least four times a week.. But I come in the late afternoon, and you come at night.”

“Tomorrow I’m scouting the route for the race on Friday, so I won’t be here anyway,” Killua said.

“What race?”

“An airboard race... Here in the rifts... Don’t you know what that is?”

“I’m not sure I’ve ever heard about it.”

“You can watch it in an adrenaline bar, they are on -1 or -2 levels in some of the pillars.”

“I thought those are just normal bars, well maybe just ones that sell drugs, or other illegal things.”

“Some do… probably most do.” It sounded a little as if Killua laughed. “And not all bars there stream races. You know what, we can meet in one after the race. Pillar 20C9R level -1, there’s a place called “Speed Trap.” It’s close to the garage where I keep my gear. Wait for me there.”

“What time does the race start?”

“About ten, usually.”

“How will you recognise me?” Gon asked and thoughtlessly reached for his helmet and started to unfasten it, but Killua quickly stopped him.

“Are you stupid?”

“But..”

“Listen, wear something with flowers… and I’ll wear a t-shirt with butterflies. Is that good enough?”

“Yes!”

“Good.” Killua got onto their bike and shouted, “See you”, before they flew away.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone is enjoying this. Thank you for all the kudos and comments <3


	5. Chapter 4: Level -1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Choosing an outfit and going for a walk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing Mito here was fun, she can be savage.

* * *

 

Light was on in the kitchen when he finally came home. The smell of coffee and bread filled flat. Mito was getting ready for an early shift. When he came by to say hello she gave him a side eye. 

“This hour is something new,” she said in a confrontational tone. 

Gon shrugged. 

“The stuff you handle for Ms Kruger is ridiculously expensive. Do you really think it’s a good idea to do this kind of work after a sleepless night?”

“I told Bisky that I’ll come in for just half a day in the afternoon.”

“She’ll dock your pay for it.”

“I’ll make it up, stay an extra hour next week. And even if not,” he preemptively addressed the point he could see she was about to make, “it's just half a day, I’ll still make my half of the rent and installments.”

“What happened in the pillar?” She was clearly tired of the dance. 

“I wasn't in a pillar.”

“Please, you come back in the middle of the night, previously you got Leorio, Kurapika or some other friend of yours to cover for you. But this time you came back early, something must have happened, something bad or you wouldn't have run back home.”

“I wasn't in a pillar,” he repeated. “I was spending the night with someone and got kicked out.”

“Seriously?” She looked at him annoyed. “You’ve done such a poor job?”

Gon smirked at this attempt to rattle him, he was quite impressed, though. She did not shy away from hitting below the belt.

“No, just an early shift, you know how it is..” 

Mito snorted. “So who is this new lay of yours… do they have a name?”

Gon could see she was trying to catch him on a lie. 

“Killua.” He said semi-truthfully, this was the person he spent the night with, even though he purposefully implied a different sort of “night spending” before to get her off his case.

“Pretty name, and Killua is..?” 

Gon frowned a little.

“An artist.” Definitely a hobby artist, he thought.  

Mito was preparing to voice more scepticism.

“Speaking of early shifts. I’ve noticed you’re taking a lot of those recently. Is this because this new girl from flight control also starts very early?” 

“What girl?” Mito was going for dismissive, but a slight blush betrayed her. 

“The one with long black hair, Pam or something. I met her when I brought your lunch to work last month. You two were chatting quite intensely.”

“Palm. She’s a colleague.” 

Gon just hummed in response. “I’m going to bed, I want to catch at least six hours of sleep.”

“That sounds best.”

“I hope your colleague Palm comes to chat with you today too.” He grinned.  

Mito snorted.

 

*

 

On Friday afternoon Gon realised he had no clothes with floral patterns. He had some stripy t-shirts and a few ones with larger images, but most were simply plain. If he wanted to risk it he could just let it be and try his luck looking for a person wearing something with butterflies. It was not worth it, though. Killua seemed way too cool. Gon had to maximise his chances.

On his way home he quickly went shopping. There were a few other people there, so he had to queue to get to a touchpad. He scanned the patterns offered. The cheap ones were ugly, and he did not want to spend too much money on this. He chose “own design” and moved on to a special booth with a tablet. It took him less than an hour to whip up a black and white sketch, reminiscent of his mural. He waited another quarter to have it produced. The fabric felt pleasant to touch and the print was of good quality. 

He made a quick stop at home to shower and change. He also styled his hair.

Mito was in a better mood than in the morning and she even ate dinner with him. 

“So this Killua is real,” she said when he was about to leave.

“Of course, but why are saying this now?”

“You made an effort.” She smiled. “You look nice, have fun.”

“Thanks.”

In many pillars the top three or four levels were used by platformers or their businesses. There were entertainment areas with clubs and bars, but one could also find warehouses and prisons. 

The platform on top of pillar 20C9R was very exclusive, it housed expensive apartment complexes and high end stores. It was no wonder that on the -1 level the bars were not some tiny and poorly lit watering holes. The furniture looked new, the clientele rich and there were projectors everywhere, playing footage from various cameras at the same time. When Gon finally reached the counter he was greeted by a real person, or at least an android that looked like one. The latter option was only a tad less posh than the former. The prices for the drinks quickly explained how the place could afford this kind of staff. Gon ordered juice. If he wanted to have a proper drink with his new friend, he had to watch his spending in this place. 

The race had not started yet, so two pretty presenters were walking around and trying to chat with the contestants. Gon was hoping to see Killua, but no one was wearing a cute cat inspired helmet. The designs were more aggressive, full of sharp angles, abstract patterns. None of the people interviewed got introduced as Killua and Gon began to worry that he was in the wrong place, or maybe this bar was streaming a different race? 

A short plump guy with his dark hair slicked back leaned on the counter next to Gon. 

“Fancy making a bet, friend?” he asked casually. He was holding a tablet with numbers-filled tables. 

“On the race?” 

“What else?” He smiled widely. 

“Is this the only race today?” 

“Yes, there’s always only one. I was right, I haven't seen you before. I’d recommend betting, then.”

“Seriously?” Gon shot him a side eye glance. The guy amused him. “I know nothing about the racers.”

“Exactly. So you’re bound to have beginner's luck, my friend.”

Gon almost laughed at the smile the guy shot him and the eyebrow wiggle that accompanied it. The guy was clearly going for inviting and enticing, but it came out almost predatory.

“Is there a racer named Killua?”

“Who knows, my friend.”

“Eh?”

“Most racers use pseudonyms, since the law frowns on this fine sport.”

“Is that so?” Gon was observing the footage of racers doing some tests on their boards. One of them moved particularly elegantly. No unnecessary or exaggerated gestures. “This one, with the lightning suit. Who’s that?”

The bookie looked at the images projected onto the wall. “You have a good eye and intuition, you should really try betting.”

“Do I now?”

“Yeah, that’s Godspeed. They’ve won a few grand prix series, but more importantly they won the High/Low Cup three years in the row.”

“A grand prix is when you have to collect several wins, right, but not necessarily always win?”

“Yeah.”

“And the cup?”

“It’s an annual event, very risky, when the race takes you above the platforms and into the rifts, the winds vary significantly up there and down here. This requires master level skill.”

“Impressive.” Gon wondered if he was guessing the identity correctly. It would be extra exciting if he did. 

“You should bet on Godspeed. Guaranteed wins, if a tad small, since they’re the series leader right now.”

“Thanks, but I’ll pass.”

“Your loss, friend.”

Gon said goodbye to the man and continued sipping his drink. He was observing the screen, concentrating on Godspeed. What the bookie said was wrong, not by accident, most certainly. The leader was not a secure bet. No one was, the nature of gambling was not about safety after all. But the leader in particular probably did not have to win to keep their position. If they did the guy would have mentioned it, to make a better pitch. More bookies were making rounds around the bar. Unlike Gon the rest of the clientele showed no hesitation and indulged in the gambling. Maybe they wanted to feel at least a tiny semblance of the adrenaline that the racers had running in their veins. 

 

*****

 

The race did not end with Godspeed’s win, they came in third still maintaining their leader’s position. Not getting scammed out of money felt nice.

All he had to do was wait, and wonder if Killua was even going to show up. How long would it take them to change and come? How far away was the race? Those questions swirled in Gon’s mind as minutes passed. His eyes did not stray from the entrance and he hoped it was the only one. 

In reality spotting Killua turned out very simple. It just took patience. Gon was sure his waiting paid off as soon as the door slid open and he saw a tall young man wearing an asymmetrical tee with colourful butterflies of various sizes. His clothes accentuated his athletic build, the t-shirt’s wide collar fell off the shoulder revealing toned muscles underneath. The graphite joggers showed off strong legs. As he came closer, Gon noticed that the headband that pulled the very fair hair back also had a silvery butterfly attached to it. 

Gon felt a little disappointed with his own lack of foresight, that he did not put in more effort to look at the same time very cute and on theme. He could have at least put on some makeup, drawn a flower on his cheek, anything.   

“Hi, Gon.”

Killua spoke first and Gon realised he walked up, while Gon just stood there staring in silence, hell knows for how long. He masked the slight embarrassment with a bright smile.   

“Hi! Sorry, I was just thinking about how cool you look.” 

“Are you always this honest?” Killua averted his eyes, his expression somewhere between coy and amused.

“Well, not always, but often.” He felt really smug as he managed to get a cute reaction. 

“I should have expected that, you were so oddly open in the rift. You look cool too, your designs are very good, no wonder you wear them.”

“Isn’t it too conceited parading in my own stuff?” Gon felt a little self conscious, once Killua identified the shirt. 

“Not when the style is this good, it’s worth showing off.” Killua shrugged and moved towards the bar. “What’d you like to drink? My treat.” 

“Are you sure? This place is pricey.”

“I invited you here, so it’s ok. And if you don't mind I’d take them to go, it’s loud and crowded in here.”

“Sure, I’d like that.” 

They took their drinks and started walking through the halls and corridors of the pillar. Some of them looked like streets, but instead of stars, a dark ceiling loomed over them, hardly distinguishable in the distance. All lights from the businesses and some living quarters were pointed to the streets, illuminating them with a myriad of colour. Unlike on the platforms cars could not drive through these passages, only light scooters and airbikes could enter, but in limited numbers. Since people came there to have fun in the clubs hardly anyone lingered outside, everyone had somewhere to go. They hurriedly passed by the pair to disappear after exchanging a few words with bouncers. Their directionless stroll felt unique. 

“You’re Godspeed, aren't you?” Gon asked sipping on his sour and very strong drink.  

“How do you figure?”

“Because I watched you fly for hours, while you were painting. And just now during the race.”

“Hmm.”

“That's not an answer. Did I guess right?”

“Yes, you did.”

“Yay, that's so cool, the bookie said you’re the best!” 

“Dark chasms, I hope they didn’t trick charm you into betting.” 

“Nah, I’m not into gambling, not with money at least. Only with my safety.” He half joked.

“Haha, I get that.” Killua smiled at him. “So what’s up with the flower mural? My secret for yours?”

“It’s not a secret. It’s just something I do to kill time”

“Really? Then why draw them in such an inaccessible location? Why not share your talent, become famous?”

“I doubt drawings of flowers could gain me fame. And the location wasn’t planned, I found paints in the pillar, so I just started using them. I had to relearn how to airboard, because I haven’t done that since school.”

“The fact that you have flown in the rifts, by the walls and survived for so long means you’re pretty amazing at it.” 

“Coming from you it’s a great compliment.” Gon did not expect praise about something as simple as flying on an airboard.

Killua snorted. “It's an objective fact, this or you’re the luckiest person ever.”

“That’s not impossible. Though I combine flying with climbing. ”

“That’s interesting, climbing outside the pillar must be hard.”

“It sometimes is, but my airboard doesn’t have batteries that last long enough to just paint on it full time.”

“That’s rough, you need a better board.”

“I guess, though I don’t have the money for one at the moment.”

“A shop one wouldn’t work, they are not good for the rifts.”

Gon just went silent. It was a depressing and touchy subject. All money related things were and he did not want to dwell on it.

“So what do you do?” Killua diverted the conversation. “Are you an archeologist? Or a true cryptid?” 

“A cryptid?”

“A mythical pillarer.” Killua made a very sceptical face. 

“You think pillarers don't exist, do you?” Gon smiled mysteriously. This must have been what most people thought, he realised suddenly.  

“They are what parents scare naughty children with. If you go into the pillars a monstrous creature will eat you, one that used to be human, but it was so long ago they have forgotten their true nature. Bonus points if the parent goes full conspiracy theory and talks about illegal genetic experiments and human animal hybrids.” Killua was making spooky sounds and funny hand gestures. 

Gon chuckled, he was in a splendid mood, as half of his cocktail was already gone. 

“The ones I’ve met were human…” He hesitated a little, was it really true, was the one that attacked him and ripped his arm off really fully human, too? He shook his head to dismiss the foggy memory. His child mind concocted some distorted nightmare from the terror, the pain and the trauma of that day. It was best not to give in to it. 

Killua was looking at him, mild concern in his eyeliner framed eyes. 

“They are all just odd, if you keep your distance they leave you alone,” he continued in a casual tone. Killua was nodding in understanding, so Gon quickly clarified. “But I’m not an archeologist, not a professional one, at least. I’d like to be one, but right now I can't.  So I just rummage around the top levels, you know, not deeper than -20, and explore there.”

“I see,” Killua said, there was a hint of melancholy in his eyes. “Listen I’ve got work in the morning. But we could fly together some time, and maybe paint?” he asked hopefully. 

“I’d like that.”

They went back to the platform and exchanged net ids before they parted. 

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who gives this story a chance and keeps reading, if there's anyone like that left at this point.


	6. Chapter 5: Level -3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> killua is being an awkward goof

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Love writing Alluka.

* * *

 

Having someone to share his hobby made Killua all warm inside. He used to consider the rush of the race the best feeling in the world. Until this. Until the anticipation of meeting a fascinating stranger who turned out to be a really cool guy. Theoretically Killua had peers, his opponents in the races. He respected them, they took the risks together. But the illegal nature of the whole sport made everyone skittish. Being competitors did not help either, people wanted to keep the board designs secret. Clever technological solutions gave a serious competing edge. Killua knew better than to let anyone into his workshop or to disclose his own engineering background. 

Besides, airboarding's appeal came not from the rivalry but the speed and danger. At least for Killua. He did not care for the spotlight his wins brought him. If anything it was the only annoying aspect of the sport. Fame led to interest or worse, fans. He avoided those like a plague.

With Gon he felt safe. He could not come up with a simple explanation as to why. Ever since their meeting in the rifts he was trying to understand. Undeniably he had a strong desire to make friends. Which, of course, awoke fear in him. What if Gon thought he was lame? He had to mitigate his eagerness, not to come off desperate, even though all he wanted was to hail Gon's net id and chat with him, make an appointment for their next meeting. 

He did not cut short their first hangout, however, to now do something as rash and needy as that.

Instead he took his airbike higher. Up into the night sky. To the frigid clouds above, just to clear his head. From so high up the platforms resembled the shiny scales of a large turtle, divided by of the rifts. At night their depth remained hidden, they just looked like darkness cutting through the colorful lights. 

Other, larger vehicles were zooming around him. Theoretically airbikes were supposed to stay closer to the platforms, but where was the joy in that? He thought of bringing Gon here; he would appreciate the view. And the illegality, most probably. 

Killua giggled in his helmet. He took a panorama of the view. 

 

ID: 99000000

(sent video)

Check out the glowy world turtle

 

What the hell am I doing, Killua thought, panicked, I wasn’t supposed to contact him till after the weekend. He’ll get spooked. 

There was no reaction and Killua began his descent while kicking his own ass mentally.

ID: 40500000

This is amazing, where did you find this footage?

 

ID: 99000000

I filmed it myself.

 

ID: 40500000

So cool, when?

 

ID: 99000000

Just now

 

ID: 40500000

No way. I wish I could see it for myself. How did you get so far up? On an airboard?

 

ID: 99000000

An airbike.

 

ID: 40500000

It’s amazing, I wish I could fly there.

 

ID: 99000000

You know what, come to my workshop and we’ll figure something out.

 

ID: 40500000

For real? 

 

ID: 99000000

Sure

 

They arranged the date and Killua sent Gon the location. It went smoother than he had expected.

 

*

 

“So you officially found another idiot to risk your life with in the rifts, a true enabler.” Alluka snorted. 

Killua had described Gon to her, probably with too much excitement, because she was teasing him now. They were sitting at a long counter in the kitchenette part of his workshop’s lounging area.

“I don't judge your friends, brat!”

“I'm only 2 years younger, besides yes you do, you always do. They are all pretentious artists - my school buddies-, or knowitall coders - Nanika’s pals from the web.”

“These are accurate descriptors, not judgements. And your Nanika webpersona is a smartass… you’re doing her now, for instance.”

Alluka huffed. 

“Everyone online…”

“Considers you a delight, everyone at the company, too. You’re safe. Your bratty sister truth is safe with me.” He shot her a mean grin for which he was rewarded with a sharp pull on the ear. 

She was strong so she managed to get him to fall off the tall stool. He held onto the counter not to drop to his knees. The floor was not the cleanest and he still needed to change into his work clothes, they were waiting for Gon who was running a little late. Maybe he had a hard time finding the workshop. The entrance to the place was hidden from the main corridor on the -3 level of the pillar. 

The platform above did not belong to the high end ones. A poor neighborhood sprawled on top of it, sometimes almost falling off. The desperate people living there used every centimetre of space available, so some of the structures dangerously leaned over the edge. Those who preferred not to risk it chose the eternal fluorescent glow of the top levels of the pillar. Tiny windowless flats populated the winding corridors, sometimes indistinguishable from small business and storage spaces. 

Killua and Alluka always came on airbikes, they landed on a small balcony turned docking area just outside the hangar. Gon would probably be coming on foot, they suspected, from the train station on the platform. 

The intercom buzzed a few minutes later. In the meantime Killua managed to tousle Alluka's lush hair into a small hive. She reciprocated with rubbing so much static into his already quite unruly hair that it stood upright. Nevertheless he was proud of his accomplishment. 

He left her scouring her bag for a comb when he went to let in their guest. 

Gon was dressed in overalls, a shirt and heavy boots. Killua instantly recognised protective fibers. Everyone in his lab wore such things underneath special coats for extra safety. It was just that they could afford thinner, more extravagant fabrics which still provided as much protection. 

“Straight from work?” Killua asked, inviting him in. 

“Yeah, I want to make up for the lost hours as soon as possible, to get Aunt Mito off my back.”

“Wise, a nagging old hag is the worst.”

“Mito isn't old, and she rarely nags,” Gon corrected him, but he did not seem offended, there was a slightly amused but forgiving tint to his voice. 

Killua smiled awkwardly and rubbed the back of his head. He exposed himself as biased against older women, they had been a scourge upon his life, especially his mother, but Gon didn't need to know that. 

“This is my sister, Alluka,” he introduced Gon once they entered a small recreation area that lead to the main workshop and hangar. “Alluka, Gon.” 

His sister already had her hair under control and tied into a high ponytail. She shook Gon's hand, they exchanged bright smiles and thorough glances as if apprising one another in a cuteness competition. Killua found himself incapable of deciding who won. 

“This place is huge.” Gon went up to the large window separating the work area from the break lounge, he peered through it twisting his head this way and that to get a better view.  

“So you're Killua's new friend who braves the rifts on a rickety high street airboard?”

“Yeah.”

“Idiots attracting each other, like a black hole and a dying star,” Alluka rolled her eyes. 

“Dramatic,” Killua whispered. 

She rewarded him with a scolding snort for that.

“And the board was top of the line,” Gon tried.

“Was?” She raised one eyebrow. “When?”

“Ten years ago.”

Alluka looked at Killua, the judgment in her eyes was crushing. 

“Sport store boards are in no way rift ready,” she chastised Gon, while pointedly staring at Killua. “My dumb brother rode one in his first races, before we built our own. He almost died. The levels of large heavy particles in the rifts are too high for those standard engines. How are you still alive?” she demanded. 

“Allu, I was just unlucky and inexperienced.”

“Gon?” She ignored him. 

“I don't fly that much per se. I use climbing equipment a lot. The battery on the board lasts for only two hours of flying. I try to never use it up. ”

“That tracks. And explains how you managed to survive,” she conceded and calmed down a little.

“Killua told me not to bring the board anyway. So I'm not sure how it's relevant.” Gon shrugged and smiled.

“We'll build you a rift-appropriate one,” Killua said. “I was worried as well.”

“Really? Wow, I just thought we're going to hang out in your shop.”

“It's not really a prime hangout spot, is it? I mean it’s dirty and cold.” Killua mumbled. He loved his workshop, because he could go wild with his passion there, but aesthetically it left a lot to be desired. The walls were bare concrete or metal slabs, with machinery placed haphazardly and cables coiling like fat worms on the floor. Sharp white light completed the unwelcoming look. Only the rest area had any warmth to it, a kitchenette and a pretty large sofa basking in a yellow glow.

“I think it's cool. And I like the pillars, they have their charm.”

“So you'll feel at home here,” Alluka said. “Let's get started. At least you're dressed for work, we still need to change.”

“Yeah, help yourself to some takeaway.” Killua indicated a row of thermal boxes on the counter. “I wasn’t sure what you eat, so I bought a few different things.”

“Thanks.”

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who reads.


	7. Chapter 6: Level +1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entering the forbidden garden.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is weird, i guess

* * *

 

Their airboards took them up a vertical wall which ended with a forceshield dome spanning the whole platform. Nothing mechanical could get through, it also blocked living things larger than a bird.  

“I don’t think we can land there,” Gon said hovering over the almost invisible barrier.  

“Sure we can.” Killua took out a jammer and disabled one segment of the force grid. Then he waved at Gon to follow him down. 

They were immediately in the thick canopy which ended just below the dome, carefully trimmed not to interact with the field. Boughs, leaves and vines made their descent tricky, but they also obscured the view of anyone who would maybe want to observe them. 

“This is the most illegal thing we’ve done together,” Gon said when they landed on the forest floor. His voice hid no judgement, it was a matter-of-fact statement. He was leaning down, unfastening his airboard. 

Killua loved its design. The board had an organic quality to it, Alluka worked very hard on translating the feeling of Gon’s drawings into 3D. It went very well with the new flying suit, a protective textile sewn specifically, to achieve a plant-like texture, in many shades of green. No one could surpass Alluka in her art. 

“We fly in the rifts all the time, we can get arrested for that. And you go into the pillars which is illegal according to your home rules.” Killua pointed out while taking off his own board and resting it against a medium-sized beech, he put his helmet next to it. 

“Yeah, sure. But the police don’t really patrol the rifts that much, if anything they look for the races. And the thing with Aunt Mito, it’s just… I told you she’s scared of me getting hurt again. This here is breaking and entering. I mean this is not a park. It wouldn’t be covered with a shield. It must be a private forest.”

“I wanted to show you real wilderness. Not these scarce trees in the nearby parks.” Killua smiled and unzipped his suit. “Besides this might be the most legal thing we’ll ever do together.”

Gon shot him a sceptical look. “Sounds like bull. And why are you undressing?”

“Aren’t you hot? I always feel it’s hot here.” He stripped to a t-shirt and a pair of long leggings, he just pulled the shoes back on. Gon followed his lead, though he was only wearing boxers and a tank top under his suit. Killua focused on folding his things not to stare at Gon. He continued. “You know I work for a subsidiary of Z Inc, right? Z Inc, like your electricity company? And the train company? And so on?” 

“Yeah, you told me you run the R&D division.” 

“I’m a twenty six year old brat running a division. That should be suspicious, no one gets this high up this quickly without nepotism. And my last name is Zoldyck, yeah? The Z in Z Inc is also for Zoldyck.”

“Really?” Gon was observing Killua with curiosity.

“Yeah, my family owns Z Inc and this is their private platform, one of them actually. This is the outer garden, then there is the middle garden, less wild but still pretty cool, and then the dull inner garden with mostly grass and some flowerbeds. With the house in the centre. You can’t see it from here, it’s a more than a kilometre away. Thank goodness.”

“Sounds like you don’t like your family very much. I couldn’t have guessed that with how you’re around Alluka.”

“Because Alluka’s the best and the rest of them are garbage.”

“Harsh.”

“It’s true, you just don’t know them.” He paused and then changed the subject. “Come on, I’ll show you around.”

 

*

 

Alluka refused to ever step foot on that platform ever again. Killua did not blame her and frankly shared a lot of her disdain for that place. He missed the garden, though. All of his happy childhood memories, as few and far between as they were, somehow circled back to the trees and brush. Deep scents of sap, earth, flowers and animals. The sounds of birds mixing with Alluka’s laughter. Actually they both used to laugh there. And for a very long time only the leaves knew that sound.    

Sneaking in and never getting near the house was an imperfect compromise he had come up with once he moved out. Running around alone brought back memories but failed to evoke any new feelings. As if he watched a rerun of his life. He still preferred it to the mundane of his present. 

They both still worked for the Zoldyck corporation. His sister had a whole plan and the cosy, unexposed job served as a first step to achieving her goals. A bitter safe choice, but she needed experience to run her own business and with the Zoldyck surname no one else was going to hire her. She did what she had to, and was now collecting skills and counting years until she could completely sever her connection to their parents. 

Killua worked there because… As embarrassing as it felt, there was no reason. He drifted into it, and now was floating aimlessly. Day after day he sat at his desk for the mandated time, just to have a few hours of freedom afterwards. For flying or tinkering with his equipment. Arguing with Alluka as he did that. Sometimes hanging out with people from his lab. A dull, grey existence.

Evenings stolen in the forest coloured his life a bit, added a splash of green and brown. Maybe that was why Gon felt so oddly right in this setting.

Then again, Gon just felt exceptionally alive. However odd it sounded, few people shared this quality. He shone, his energy and happiness almost limitless. For the first time in years Killua looked forward to something. Every meeting they set filled him with anticipation. 

 

*

 

Among the trees, Killua saw Gon’s inquisitiveness first-hand. No wonder he wanted to be an archaeologist with a curious nature like that. 

Gon took over their hike around the outer garden. Pulled Killua into the exploration spirit he had lost so long ago. By the stream Gon noticed footprints of the roe deer family that lived there, then the wild pigs and foxes. Thus the tracking began. 

Killua had not tried to find any of the resident creatures in years, even though he knew they lived in the brush. He would just wade in the pristine water of the stream and listen to the birds and the bugs. A passive way of  reliving his past.

Dropping to the ground with Gon to remain hidden from the skittish deer felt fresh. Even though they ended up covered in dirt and fir needles. Then they climbed an oak to spy on the wild pigs as they trotted underneath, looking for acorns.  

The pigs led them to a pond. They followed them, jumping from branch to branch. Once the family left, Gon got down off the tree and left his shoes in the meadow. He ran into the water, splashing it around. He beckoned at Killua to come in. He didn't have to wait long. They could not really swim in it, as it only went up a little past their knees. So they chased each other around it, laughing and arguing. 

Later they stretched on the shore once they tired of goofing around and watched the frogs who were  giving a concert on stones between the reeds. 

New memories in full colour joined the childhood ones. This was his new reality with Gon, whatever they did together filled Killua’s present to the brim. No space left for the background noise of melancholy.   

 

*

 

Killua was in the bathroom when he heard the front door open and a woman speak. 

“Now you're here?!” she demanded. “Where were you all day? We were supposed to repaint Abe's bedroom, since she's away at the sanatorium.”

“Mito, please,” Killua could hardly decipher Gon's words, the man spoke so softly. “We have a guest.”

They had spent most of the day on the Zoldyck platform. Killua only now realised that he had not warned Gon how long it would take. To tell the truth he had not expected them to stay there that long, but neither did he have a specific plan for what they would do once they got there. 

When it started to get dark they picked up their boards and flew back to the workshop. They could not stop talking for one minute, both of them had so many ideas for drawings. 

Then without much warning their friendship went to a next level. Until then Gon had never invited Killua home. For the few months that they had known each other they had only hung out in the workshop. Or the rifts, drawing their own things. 

After the garden though, they wanted to design something together. Make the art more of a mutual thing, not styles that coexisted. It only made sense that since Killua shared a part of his most private memories, Gon would let him closer to his own. 

Killua dried his hands and left the small bathroom. 

“Good evening, Ms Freecss,” he said.

“Oh.” She looked him up and down.

“My name is Killua.”

“Mito Freecss, call me Mito, please.” She smiled at him, then shot a look at Gon. There was some unspoken communication between her and her nephew, but Killua had no idea what it pertained to. To make things more confounding Gon reacted with a rather smug smile.

“I’m terribly sorry for this situation, Mito,” Killua said. “It’s all my fault. I kept Gon all day.” 

Now Gon was trying to send non verbal signals to him, presumably to keep quiet, but Killua was way ahead of him. He understood very well that airboarding, let alone any other of their activities, could not be mentioned.

“We were supposed to draw at my place, but a pipe burst and Gon was helping me to salvage everything, while the maintenance robots were working.”

“I see, but you could have at least messaged me,” she chastised Gon.

“I’m sorry.”

“And we can paint the room now,” Killua said. “I have access to an industrial spray, it’ll need only thirty minutes to do one room.” 

“Oh, really, we can do it ourselves… later.” Mito seemed a little embarrassed by the help offer. “And we’d still need to move the furniture. Besides, weren't you two doing something?”

“We were going to draw together, but we can do it later, or tomorrow,” Killua said.

“Gon told me you like drawing too,” Mito said. 

“That’s true, but this is no problem. Listen, I’ll go fetch the spray, it’ll take me an hour maybe.”

“Yes, and we can get the room ready!” Gon seconded him.

Mito looked a little uneasy; again she shot an odd glance in Gon’s direction.

“No, Aunt Mito, it’s fine. We’ll draw later. You’re right, I shouldn’t have disappeared like that..”  

“Well, if we can still do it this weekend, there is no reason to put it off.” She capitulated. 

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you to everyone who's still reading this <3


	8. Chapter 7: Levels from -10 to +10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A catastrophe takes place. Gon is there to help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the plot finally picks up, sort of.

* * *

 

The platform shook violently. Gon hardly kept his balance. Many were not so lucky, ending up on the ground, scrambling among the produce that fell off the nearby stalls. A few aftershocks rippled through the structure, but it stabilised.

Gon looked around. The open-air food market was in chaos. In the distance he saw something straight from a film: an edge of a platform sticking up in the air, inclined at an almost twenty degree angle. People around him noticed it too and some started screaming, pointing to the catastrophic image. 

He could not just stand there. He grabbed his unfinished shopping and raced towards an old airbike Killua had lent him. Killua had called it old, because he built himself and Alluka a new, better one every two years. Gon had only laughed at him a little, without commenting, in case Killua reconsidered.

 

*

 

Smoke and dust filled the air around the tilted platform. So did noises of all varieties: screams, sirens, engines, and the ominous rending of concrete accompanied by the groaning of metal frames pushed to their limit. The top of the pillar looked snapped off, an almost unimaginable image for a structure that large. The platform leaned dangerously  on two other pillars, and service airbuses and private air vehicles were frantically evacuating people from them, in case they gave in under the unexpected weight. Around the broken pillar, only government vehicles flew. A typical car or bike would have broken down because of the dust particles, but Gon’s was designed for the rifts. Both the engine and his suit could withstand this environment. 

Different kinds of calamities ravished the surface of the tilted platform; flames consumed some parts, while others were washed over by water and sewage spilling from burst pipes. In several places, bluish and white spark sizzled from snapped cables, starting more fires. 

Gon craned his neck to see down there. People were crawling in confusion or huddling close to something in shock, afraid to let go. Rescue drones and emergency service people were trying to get to as many as they could, in as little time as possible.   

He took his bike down to the closest person he could see. He landed a metre away and down relative to the tilt. He instantly secured the bike by shooting hooks into the ground. 

“Come on,” he said, carefully getting off. “I'll take you away from here.”

The person's eyes darted to him. 

“You're not from the fire department. “ 

“No, but my bike carries two, so I can fly us out.”

The man moved slowly in Gon's direction. He skidded on his ass the small distance between them and landed in Gon's arms. Getting them both onto the bike turned out tricky, the man's physical abilities were impeded by some injuries and the terror of the situation. 

“I don't have a spare helmet and, well, there are no seatbelts, so try to hold on as tightly as you can.”

At first, the man hesitantly placed his hands on Gon's hips, but then he wrapped them more securely around his waist. Gon could feel him shake plastered against his back. 

“Are we going?” the man asked, when Gon froze for a minute. 

He was considering sequencing, an issue that had not occurred to him when he embarked on this rescue. The bike was weighed down and Gon suspected it would be more prone to toppling over once he released the securing hooks.  He had two options. Either to ask the man to lean to the side and hope to counterbalance the tilt of the ground or to start the engine and only then to release the hooks, counting on the lines not to snap. 

He chose the latter. It did not require cooperation from his already spooked passenger. Besides, Gon could not show any crack in his confidence. Any hint that he wavered could cause his passenger to make some disastrous choices.   

Gon’s bike took off and once it was a few centimetres above the concrete, he commanded the hooks to release through the neural link in the helmet. Soon they safely flew away from the platform. 

The man was clutching to Gon painfully, which only motivated Gon more to go faster to reach the nearest unaffected platform. All over the closest ones, the authorities were setting up emergency centres. Gon dropped this passenger off by the med tents and circled back to the catastrophe zone.  

 

*

 

He made a few rounds before a warning icon began to blink inside his helmet. After his latest drop-off, he took a break and called Killua’s net id. 

ID: 40500000

Hi, Killua.

 

ID: 99000000

Hi, what’s up?

 

ID: 40500000

I have this icon blinking in my helmet…

 

ID: 99000000

Wait, I’ll call up your machine on my screen.

There was a short pause. 

ID: 99000000

The particle filter is at capacity… so early… odd… both in the bike and your helmet.

 

ID: 40500000

You see…

 

ID: 99000000

You’re by the fallen platform!

  
  


ID: 40500000

Yeah, I’m getting people off it. The bike can carry two, so I thought I could help.

 

ID: 99000000

Sounds like you. Do you remember how to open the bike and change the filter? You should have a spare in the left front compartment. 

 

ID: 40500000

I’m not sure.

 

ID: 99000000

Okay, wait, take a break, drink something, I’ll be there in 30 minutes. And I’ll bring you a spare helmet too.

 

ID: 40500000

Will you fly with me?

 

ID: 99000000

Sure, why not? I was thinking of going there anyway. I bet I can save more people than you.

 

ID: 40500000

Seriously? I’ve already rescued six, so you’ll never catch up.

Gon could hear a slight pout in his own voice.

ID: 99000000

Phew, six, I’ll make up the difference in no time.

 

ID: 40500000

Sounds like a brag.

 

ID: 99000000

Does it now? Wanna bet?

 

ID: 40500000

Sure, the loser buys dinner for the winner.

 

ID: 99000000

Deal. 

Killua laughed. 

ID: 99000000

Oh, and ring your aunt while you’re on break.

 

ID: 40500000

Shit, I forgot to tell her I’ll be late.

 

ID: 99000000

Yup, called it.

 

ID: 40500000

“And that I only have half the shopping.”

 

ID: 99000000

Good luck with that call, Gon. I’m on my way.

Meanie, Gon thought with a smile. But the thought of Killua joining him made him super happy. 

He braced himself before he called Mito. 

 

*

 

At the end of the day it turned out Gon won the bet with three more rescues. He did not hide his admiration that Killua managed to make up any at all. They could not continue their efforts, because they were both exhausted.  They also had no more spare filters for their bikes and the government forces seemed to have the situation fairly under control, while more civilians came to help out too. The death toll still ended up pretty high and many people were proclaimed missing. If any of them fell from the platform once it tilted, their remains had disappeared forever in the rifts. Their loved ones were never going to know their fate with any certainty.

The promised dinner turned into a late supper past eleven at night. They struggled to find any establishment open, or even a shop, so Killua decided to take Gon out properly at a later date, to give him his bet reward. That evening they ended up in Killua’s apartment. They used Gon’s incomplete shopping and whatever else was in the fridge to make some food. And a total mess. 

 

*

Due to the tragedy, the government declared a mourning period for all the platforms within a hundred kilometres radius, all businesses and schools were to be closed for the next three days. So Gon and Killua decided to return to the catastrophe site. The rescue was still in progress, vehicles of all sizes and smoke surrounding the platform. Nothing was burning anymore, though fumes were escaping from various crevices in the structure. Luckily the rescuers apparently found a way to stop the water flow. 

While the authorities were busying themselves on the surface, Gon suggested going into the exposed levels of the pillar, to see if some unfortunate souls were not trapped down there. 

Finding a good place to land proved tricky. The insides of the structure were not spared a thorough bath. The ground glistened with puddles and tiny ponds. Treacherous things as one could not tell how deep they could truly go just by looking at them. Were they small indentations in the concrete or metal? Or did they go through all the way to the lower level?   

Gon and Killua chose their way carefully among the ruins. The place looked bleak, metal beams were sticking out at random and the wind played an odd song between them. The crunching sound of gravel under their boots accompanied the eerie tune.  

“There’s no one here,” Gon said after they cleared another empty humid hall. 

“No one alive, at least,” Killua agreed. They had encountered a few bodies. All of those people appeared to have either drowned or they had some head injuries. The water must have completely submerged those corridors, or the heavy current threw its victims around. “I think we went around all the accessible rooms.” 

“Yeah, and we tried to check the blocked ones too.” Gon sounded distraught, maybe because of all the death they encountered. Their effort turned out futile. It frustrated him.

“It’s good that we checked everything, this way we know no one will die here slowly, trapped somewhere.” Killua made an attempt to cheer Gon up. 

“True.” Gon said avoiding looking Killua in the eyes. He was glad for the words, even though he did not agree with them, not entirely at least.  

They directed their steps back toward the bikes. 

They were about half way there when a wall beside them began to vibrate. They launched forward to get away from it. The concrete did not crack and crumble like it would from structural damage. Gon could hear a sort of mechanical sound and then a hole appeared in the wall. First tiny, it grew very fast and finally a robot came through. It was the size of a van and had an insect-like appearance with six legs it used for walking and several other appendages devoted to other functionalities.  

“What the hell is that?” Killua asked. He grabbed Gon’s wrist, trying to pull him away. “Where did it come from?”

“It’s a constructor robot. It came from below,” Gon explained. He placed his palm over Killua’s. This made his friend loosen his grip. “I’ve seen some as a kid, deep within the pillars, but I’ve never heard about them coming this high up.”

“A constructor robot?” 

“They live… well, function within the pillars, maintaining them, so the structures stay secure. I guess it makes sense they’re coming here, since the pillar collapsed for some reason. They must be trying to fix this.” Gon came closer to the machine which was scanning its surroundings and investigating the corridor with some of its appendages. 

“It ripped the wall apart, I’m not sure it’s safe to go there.” Killua was following him, still tugging at Gon’s wrist. Gon twisted his forearm a little, so that Killua’s hand slid down. Then he grabbed it, twining their fingers together. He gave it a reassuring squeeze. This was his territory. He knew what he was doing.

“It should be, they are programmed to protect life. It should slow down when we approach.” With confidence Gon repeated the words Kite had said to him many years before. No one remembered when the constructors were created, or by whom. Ages ago when the pillars started growing, most likely. The robots now functioned on their own, maintaining and building themselves. Their programming remained unchanged, though. They concerned themselves only with the architecture, and upon encountering people the machines froze not to harm them. 

“What do you even want from it?” Killua asked cautiously, though he sounded calmer than a minute earlier.  

“I want to check its storage compartment. They have this big open one you can see from here, they carry building materials in it. But there is a second closed one. They put things that confuse them there. Sometimes it’s artefacts, sometimes electronics. Kite has told me it’s always worth it to take a look.” 

“That’s so cool.” Killua’s said. “How do you open it?” 

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you to anyone who still reads. <3


	9. Chapter 8: Level 0

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gon finds a clue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing Cheadle was stressful, being [Jyu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jyuanka/pseuds/jyuanka)'s friend. She writes the best Cheadle and I have massive respect.

* * *

They encountered more constructors of various sizes coming to the exposed levels. This lifted Gon's mood as the locked compartments proved a treasure trove. They found some artifacts, which Gon hoped to sell to antiques dealers. But what was far more exciting, they picked up several pieces of archaeological equipment, including messenger drives and portable server parts. They collected so many things that Gon had to stay with them as Killua made a few rounds back to his workshop. If they had just left the items in the pillar they would have run a chance of the constructors picking them up again.

“I see we're starting a junk yard,” Alluka said when she came by the workshop with some frozen food to reheat in the kitchenette. She approached the yet unsorted pile of things that was now lying in the middle of the bike bay.

“Not really,” Gon laughed. “A lot of these are proper artifacts.”

Alluka eyed the stuff incredulously. “If you say so.”

“We actually have a couple of things we want you to check out.” Gon fished out a black and grey box the size of a book.

“A reinforced drive?” That piqued her interest. She came up to Gon and took the box out of his hand. She turned it around, examining the smooth composite surface.

“The archaeologists use them, there are also some parts of a portable server.”

Alluka needed no more invitation. She knelt, ignoring her dress, and started to sift through the pile. Gon had to sit next to her and monitor her every move to protect the non-electronic stuff she was all too eager to toss aside.

Gon took a quick look around, but couldn't see Killua. He could however sense a faint smell of food. Gon smiled.

 

*

 

After a few days life on the platforms returned to normal, more or less. Though the fallen platform was being slowly dismantled, it still loomed over the horizon, whichever direction one looked from. The authorities started an official investigation into the catastrophe, but no reports had been published yet. It did not stop people from wild speculation, even drawing outlandish conclusions from the lack of an official answer right after the tragedy. Conspiracy theories flooded the net. Gon’s friend Kurapika stayed on top of all that craziness, but Gon knew better than to expect fast answers. Nothing similar had happened in centuries, a simple cover up or an attack by unknown parties sounded off to Gon.

The mourning period was lifted and they could finally eat something other than frozen dumplings, a very welcome change. The smell of rice with vegetables and spices filled the workshop, as they all ate leaning over Alluka's computer. They had been analysing the information she retrieved with the help of her hacking AI Nanika, from the drives for hours until they stumbled upon a log that shook Gon to his core.

“This info wasn't originally on this drive. It bounced off a few servers, until someone downloaded it with a whole huge package of data,” Alluka was explaining.

“Yes, the networks in the pillars are unstable, they tend to move around.”

“How come?” Killua asked. “Wouldn't the routers just stay where people put them?”

“Not really, the constructors are constantly maintaining the stability of the pillars, so the architecture below is shifting all the time. That's why you need special equipment that will tell you where up and down is, you can't rely on visual cues. And portable servers and routers to heighten your chances of reaching the net.”

Gon was rereading the message on the screen for the fifth time now.

 

_Ten cycles after Ms - my bad Dr - Yorkshire left us to return up with her specimens. It was her mistake, since her departure we've encountered some even more interesting pillarers. Those segmented limbs are something to behold._

_We've made a few wrong turns, but we've made it more than a few levels down, thanks to my calculations and analysis. The journey is getting slower. Ging’s help isn’t necessary any more, I’ve learned all there was from him already. I hope he decides to go back soon. But I'll be the first one to go all the way to ground level and tell the tale, as I was destined._

 

This was by no means complete information, but Gon had not heard any news about his father in so many years that it meant everything to him. Of course a risk existed that this referred to some other Ging, even if it was not a particularly popular name.

“I need to find this Yorkshire person,” Gon said.

Alluka ran a search.

“All this is too generic,” she said after they studied the results. “There are hundreds of doctors called Yorkshire, we don't even know her specialisation.” She got up to stretch a bit and put away her plate.

Gon felt hopeless. Some of the people looked too old or too young to have gone down the pillars with his father, but other than that he could not think of a criterion to narrow it down.

Killua took Alluka's place and analysed the data on the screen.

“A pillarer is a person or creature, right?”

“Yes, mostly a person.”

“The author of the log called them specimens, so Yorkshire is a researcher I’d imagine, in the field of biology.” Killua eliminated several names from the list, leaving three. “This lady is into microbes, that one into plants. I'd say your best bet is this one, Cheadle Yorkshire. Especially because all info about her is very vague. And I wouldn't suspect any research on the pillar dwellers to be on the up and up if you know what I mean.”

The face looking at Gon from the screen projected seriousness and sternness, despite the mint green hair. Maybe it was the effect of the retro aesthetic of her clothes: she wore glasses, a very bold fashion statement by all standards.

“Alluka, can you access our competition analysis files?”

“You mean the corporate spying division for Z corp?” Alluka reappeared by the desk.

“Yes, Dr Yorkshire's last employer, mentioned anywhere, was Hunter inc, they have very influential biochem labs.”

“I'm sure Z corp has extensive research on them, Hunters are one of Z’s main competitors. I've never tried to hack that division though. And well, Milluki runs that.”

“Shit.”

“But Nanika will do it. Handing Milluki his ass is way overdue and it will be a pleasure. Move.” She tilted the chair and almost dropped Killua on the floor, Gon caught him just in time. He laughed at Alluka taking out her Nanika headband and pulling her hair up with it. She looked like she was going into battle.

 

*

 

The neighbourhood where Dr Yorkshire lived consisted of almost identical houses. Medium-sized cubes, grey or white in colour, all surrounded by small square gardens. All streets looked alike, neatly arranged into a grid. If Gon spun around at one of the crossroads, he was not sure whether he would be able to tell which way he came from.

Finally he found himself at the right metal gate, the only distinguishing feature of the almost two metre tall smooth concrete fence separating him from his destination. Thick patches of bush branches stuck out above it, and from where Gon stood he could not see the house itself.

According to the data Alluka and Killua gathered, Dr Yorkshire still worked for Hunter Inc, though the company did not advertise that fact. Her name was on the payroll, likewise her data could be found on the HR servers. The Zoldyck corporate spies did not have any information as to what her research pertained to. That meant whatever she studied must have been super proprietary and possibly not entirely legal. Otherwise, it would not have been kept so confidential, and the Zoldyck plants and hackers would have acquired some general information about it.

The scope of her research did not interest Gon, although the secrecy made the whole situation curious. Dr Yorkshire kept to herself and did everything to stay out of the public’s eye. Killua suspected that she had her employer's help in hiding so well. She lived alone in the most unassuming neighbourhood possible, though the general affluence of the platform allowed for significant privacy. No one could easily peek into any of the houses. The well lit streets exposed any stranger or out of place machine. Gon felt somehow awkward and put on the spot just being there, in that featureless place.

Having got his hesitation under control, he rang the bell. The intercom lit up after several seconds.

“Who are you?” a clear, bored voice asked.

“I’m Gon Freecss. I’d like to talk to you about my father, Ging Freecss, I think you used to know him.”

“What makes you think that?” There was a slight shift in the woman’s voice, it became cautious.

“I found a portable drive from the pillars. A log there mentions both you and him.”

“The last time I saw Ging Freecss was over fifteen years ago. Besides, I’m busy.”

“When will you have some free time? I can come then.” Gon did not let her off the hook.

“I don’t know, I generally have a lot of work.”

“All the more reason to talk to me now. Half an hour and I’ll be out of your hair forever.”

A frustrated sound made its way through the speaker.

“Fine, come in, you’ll have exactly thirty minutes.”

She buzzed Gon in. The garden behind the wall looked actually pretty and well maintained. One glance at the house told Gon that Dr Yorkshire was adamant about deflecting any prying eyes, all the windows were fully reflective on the outside.

A woman in her forties greeted him by the front door. Her hair was green, like in her photo, she was wearing simple, yet neat clothes in pastel colours. She stepped aside to let him into a spacious hallway, which had stairs running both up and down, hinting on a basement.  All the doors he could see, apart from one, were closed, and he had an inkling that they were also locked. A smell hung in the air, a very faint one - reminiscent of a hospital, but not exactly like that. Gon could sense it, but others would not be able to. It was hard to tell if Dr Yorkshire knew that it reached the hallway and lingered in it. Maybe she believed she managed to conceal it completely.

The doctor pointed him in the direction of the only open doorway, which led to a small sitting area. It gave off a very strong waiting room vibe, the walls and furniture lacked any personal touches, they had generic shapes and bland colours. Nothing about them invited a guest to make themselves cosy. Gon considered if he should just stand, but he did not want to come across as intimidating, so he chose an armchair. She sat opposite him on a sofa.

“How did you find out where I live?” she asked him without further ado.

“If I answer this, it doesn’t come out of my thirty minutes,” Gon said and playfully stuck out his tongue. He also tapped his temple to emphasize that he was ready to keep track of time with his own neural network.

She glowered at him briefly, before her face regained a neutral disinterested expression.

“So you not only resemble Ging physically, you’re also as annoying as he is.” She smiled joylessly. “Your clock starts when you start asking the questions. Now answer mine.”

“My friend is a skilled hacker, they dug up your address.”

“That easy.” The doctor scrunched her nose. “Fine, ask.”

“You were the last person to go with Ging on an expedition.”

“Was I now?”

“He hasn’t returned since then, so yes, you were.” Even though it was Gon asking the question he felt like he was the one being examined. “Tell me where you saw him last. And why didn’t he come back with you? Is he...” He could not finish the question.

“Whether he’s dead now I don’t know, and frankly don’t care about. But he was fine last time I saw him.” She looked at Gon, as if she was studying him. “Seventeen years ago my employer sanctioned a series of research expeditions into the biosphere of the pillars. They hired your father, because he was said to be the best archaeologist in the business. He was to guide me down and help me find samples for my research. We took ten robots with us, and one other person. Pariston Hill. And we descended.”

“Is he also an archaeologist?”

“Pariston? No, he’s a network and data specialist, and I’d also venture a hacker. My employer hired him to help secure research data. I was supposed to try sending reports up the pillar, as often as possible, documenting my findings. In case I lost the samples or didn’t return at all. Corporations are pragmatic like that.”

“Has this Pariston returned?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t even know your father hasn’t. Travelling with them wasn’t an experience I recall fondly.”

“No?” After having heard a lot of praise directed at Ging by Kite, such harsh words shocked Gon.

“How old are you?”

“Twenty six.”

“Do you even remember your father? Can you? He must have been descending all the time even before our journey, to have the renown he had.” Her eyes pierced through Gon with cold understanding.

“I don’t think I’ve ever met him properly.”

“Good for you, I’d say, though you probably don’t see it like that.”

“Why did you split up?” He looked at the bare wall to the side of her. He did not care for her analysis.

“I collected all the samples the robots could carry, so I was done.”

“And Ging?”

“Ging and Pariston took a liking to each other… or maybe more precisely, took a liking to hating each other? They formed an unspoken rivalry, or something annoying like that. One day during a meal break Ging told us a story about there being a ground level to the pillars, and how reaching it is apparently the greatest achievement possible for a human. At least according to the archaeologists.” Her lips twisted in a sarcastic smile. “Pariston became obsessed with the idea. So when I said I was going back up, Pariston goaded your father into going down, to the mythological ground level.” She paused and adjusted her glasses, her overall position still as stiff as when she first sat down. “Though, when I think about it, Ging didn’t need much encouragement.”

Her conclusion did not surprise Gon in the slightest. Ging had always wanted to go further, deeper. Kite had told Gon as much.

“How deep were you?”

“Around twelve hundred levels deep, I think. We started in the pillar 3101967, but we moved horizontally too, I came out in pillar 1315289.”

“I see, that’s quite a journey, must have taken months.”

“It did.”

She sat there, looking expectantly at him, but he had one more question.

“Were you going straight up? When you were coming back?”

“You know that’s impossible in the pillars, right?” She sighed. “But I guess yes, as much as I could.”

“Thank you for your time, Dr Yorkshire.” He got up and gave her a curt bow.

“You want to go and find him, don’t you?” She also stood up to walk him to the door.

“If I can.”

Her expression became even more pensive. She looked him up and down, lingering on his face for a brief moment, and she just tipped her head, as if in acknowledgement.

“Makes sense,” she said while opening the door for him. “Makes sense.”

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who's reading.


	10. Chapter 9: Level +2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gon needs to have the hard conversations with his mum and his friend.

* * *

“Have you stopped going to work?” Mito asked during dinner. “You're not keeping regular hours.” She doubled down immediately to prevent any attempts at derailing the conversation. 

“I'm taking a break.” He had feared this conversation and put it off as long as he could. Apparently he had hit the limit on that. The size of their kitchen jumped to the forefront of his mind, his thoughts drifted to an odd conclusion that he could probably touch both the wall to his right and the one on is left if he stretched out his arms. It looked like a tunnel, finished off with a small window, hardly visible from behind all the stuff stashed haphazardly on the sill. He shook his head to refocus on Mito, she was saying something.

“...on? Is it Killua? I mean he didn’t used to distract you from your work. You’ve actually got better with your schedule, after the two of you started dating.”

Ah, yes, Gon thought. He had never cleared that up. He had let Mito come to this conclusion and somehow the time was never right to correct it. Killua had no idea. Would he get mad if he knew? Gon pondered. 

“It has nothing to do with Killua,” he said finally. Again he missed an opportunity to come clean. The thing was, the lie did not bother Gon in the slightest, he did not mind that Mito thought that about them. “After that platform tilted… I went there to help evacuate people, in the first hours after the catastrophe. I was doing that when I called to tell you I was alright.”

“What? How? You’re not a trained emergency responder.”

Another thing he did not want to talk to her about, but he had to. Because this was going to free him from the promise he had made to her. 

“Killua gave me his old airbike.”

“I know, that was very kind of him.” She paused and frowned, then her eyes darted towards him, anger and accusation kindling in them. “Don’t tell me you were foolish enough to take it into an inferno like that!”

“I did, I flew out many people on it.”

“How could you do that!? Airbikes are not meant for such environments. And don’t be so dismissive, I manage an aerial delivery service, I know about these things!”

“Killua builds his bikes specially, they have engines suited for extreme conditions…” he started. “This is beside the point. You said that if I save someone like I was saved, I can go and become an archaeologist.” 

Mito clenched her fists and let her head drop.

“I did, didn’t I?” she whispered. Her voice shook. “So you’ve made up your mind… even though you’re untrained. Even though so many people don’t make it back.”

“I had some training when I went with Kite. I’ve also been reading up on that. And I know many people don’t make it back. That’s why I want to go, I want to find my father.”

“Gon, that’s insanity. You can’t find anyone down there… It’s too vast and unpredictable.” 

He could hardly understand her, because she began sobbing mid-sentence. He reached out and took her hand. 

“I don’t think it’s impossible, and Aunt Mito, I will come back. I promise. We can even do the thing.” He tried to uncurl her fingers to make a promise like they used to,  a pinky swear sealed with a kiss.

“Gon, no, I can’t.” She got up. “This is too much.” She ran out of the kitchen. 

 

*

 

Killua sat down opposite Gon at the small table. Gon had come a little early to the posh bistro, before Killua’s lunch hour was scheduled. A good thing too, because he managed to secure a table, the place was packed with people from the surrounding office buildings. The decor reminded Gon of their trip to the Zoldyck garden: lush plants surrounded them and even a tree grew in the middle of the room.  

“Have you ordered yet?” Killua asked, looking around for the menu.

“Just juice, I thought I’d wait for you.”

“Thanks.” 

A waiter came and gave them printed menus. Everything about the place screamed luxury at Gon, the hand calligraphed sheet he was holding, the server who was undoubtedly human. Killua did not seem to notice. For the first time they were meeting in the middle of the day, on the town. Previously they had hung out at their respective homes, or in Killua’s workshop, mostly in the evenings. And in the rifts and pillars, obviously. In the past, eating out at such a place would have left Gon uneasy, because Killua would have picked up the tab without sparing it a thought. The imbalance in their financial investment into the friendship would just have kept growing. Today, though, Gon had the money in his account from selling most of the artifacts, so he could foot the bill. 

They ordered and Killua took out his tablet. 

“I’ve made some sketches of what I want next to the hollyhock. Look.” He showed the drawing to Gon, then let it change into another version. 

Gon glanced at it, but the elaborate butterfly did not hold his interest. Not like it would have a few weeks prior. 

“I thought of starting on it this evening, while you finally finish the violets. We haven’t been there since before the platform collapsed.”

“Sounds good,” Gon started. No, it did not. It sounded like nothing. Or maybe like catastrophe of the personal kind he was on a collision course toward, with no option step aside. Telling Killua felt even worse than telling Mito. With her it had always been there, like a glass balancing on the edge of a table, ready to fall and shatter. Gon had told Killua about wanting to be an archaeologist, but for his friend this information was something abstract, he had no point of reference. He could not know how serious about it Gon was. Their relationship was built on doing things together, packing their time with art or exploring or flying high above the platforms, stargazing far away from the glare of the night lights. A mention here and there could not have prepared Killua for what he was about to hear. When their friendship started was it already marked by an expiry date? The impending betrayal made Gon’s mouth taste bitter. Especially when he could already feel the loneliness of a life without Killua. How strange was that?

“You should do that.”

Killua looked up from the table, his expression puzzled. 

“You’re not coming?”

“No, I’ll need to put the whole painting thing on hold for a while.”

“Why? I thought you’re taking a break from your job, so you’d have some more time now.” Killua was scrunching his forehead. 

Tell him now, Gon commanded himself. He felt his body physically protest, making him clench his teeth. He swallowed, despite the large ball of nerves that materialised in his throat.

“I’ll be going down the pillars. Doing archaeology, you know, now that I can afford the equipment and to pay off a year’s amount of instalments, that I would owe to Mito.” 

“Oh…”

“And I have a solid clue about my father from Dr Yorkshire. So I know where to start.”

“That makes sense.” Killua looked hurt for a brief moment, before he got his face under control. “When are you going?”

“I thought in about a month, I still need to assemble the equipment and research some stuff.”

“Are you going with Kite?”

“No, Kite’s on an expedition, I have no idea when he’s coming back.”

“So who are you going with?” 

“Alone, with some robots.” 

Killua’s head shot up and he reached to grab Gon’s hand.

“You can’t be serious! I’ve never heard of anyone going alone, not below the fiftieth level?!” He squeezed Gon’s hand.

Gon could feel the vibration in Killua’s grip. 

“I don’t want to wait, I’ve waited for so many years. And I’d rather go down there alone than with someone I don’t know or don’t trust. Expeditions with strangers can go sour real fast, especially since I won’t be concentrating on artifacts. And I only trust Kite, who’s absent, and will be gone for chasms know how long. And beside him, just Bisky, who’s retired.” 

“Do you trust me?” Killua asked, tugging at Gon’s hand with insistence.

“Of course I do. You’re my best friend.” Gon looked Killua in the eyes. “How could you doubt that?”

Killua turned away with a blush.

“Would you go with me, then?”

“I mean theoretically, sure, but you’ve never wanted to go there. And besides, you’ve got a job, and championships…”

“Then we’ll go together.” Killua didn’t let him finish.

“But..”

“It can’t be that hard to move around there, since your dumb ass can do it.”

Gon laughed, mostly to defuse the stress. Killua going with him… it was both exciting and terrifying. Could he really drop everything just like that? He was capable, but rifts presented totally different challenges than months-long expeditions.

“I guess..”

“Good, we’re in agreement.” Killua finally let go of his hand. “Especially since our food is here.” 

“You know that there are no desserts in the pillars, right?” Gon decided to make one last thing clear, before he dug into his fragrant salad. Killua’s lunch consisted of crepes and chocolate sauce. 

“I do, so I’ll make sure we won’t linger and wander around down there. Straight to the point. We find your dad and get back.” He nodded and stuffed his face full of crepes. 

“Works for me.” Gon smiled.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter might have my favourite scene from the whole fic. The one where Gon talks to Mito. I feel i did good on the emotions of it.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who keeps reading this story.


	11. Chapter 10: Level -50

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Preparations and off they go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got to write a bit of Canary and that always a pleasure. She's so lovely.

Killua considered taking Canary to dinner to announce his plans, but then he decided to bring her to the workshop instead. It would do more to explain, he gathered. 

She was walking around, looking at the equipment he had assembled there over the years. 

“Looks like a small factory in here,” she said finally. “Curious what are you producing here.”

“Death traps,” Alluka offered an answer and Killua snorted. “Or intricate suicide contraptions,” she added after a moment of thought. 

Canary giggled a bit. “One could be fooled by all the airboards and airbikes.” Canary winked and Killua remembered the few fun months they used to date in college before she decided guys were not her thing really. He on the other hand realised he preferred them, though not exclusively, over girls. Still, her smile was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen, only Gon's could rival it thus far. 

“Were you indulging in this foolishness in college?”

“Yeah.”

“Figures.” She nodded. “I see you’ve been diligently reading all our research.” She indicated his projects. She did not add, “and stealing our results,” even though the special materials the Z Corp lab had developed could be seen in his builds.  

“Isn’t that my job?” He smiled. “Or was my job,” he corrected.

“Was?” Canary looked at him surprised.

Alluka snorted at his side.

“I only heard that you’re moving out, not changing jobs,” Canary said. “Alluka asked if I’d be interested in sharing the apartment.”

“What?” He shot his sister an accusatory glance. “I’m not moving out!”

“You might as well be,” Alluka pouted.

“And you’re already offering my room to people?! What is this, lesbian dating classical edition? Your second date will be moving in together?” he half joked. He said that to get an admission, because it had seemed to him that their flirting had gone to the next level recently, but neither of them had told him anything.

Canary burst into laughter and mouthed “busted”.

“Fuck you! You’re the one to talk!?” Alluka kicked Killua in the shin while yelling at him. “When you’re planning your first date as a possibly one way trip into the netherworld!” 

“It’s not like that, I’m not sure what gave you the idea.” He pinched her forearm in retaliation.

“Kind sky, you’re an idiot, but this way your sudden career change into a suicide victim, sorry, an archaeologist, makes even less sense!” 

“Dark chasms, is this serious?! Are you really going down there?” Canary’s expression turned serious suddenly.    

“Yes, yes I am. My friend needs a companion. I can’t let him go alone, and he would, he is like that.” Killua felt cornered.  

    “Yeah, you two are both stupid like that.” Alluka was very agitated. They had had this fight before, a couple of times. Killua hoped that since Canary was coming Alluka would give it a break. Apparently not. 

“I’ve already decided. I invited Canary here, to tell her that she’ll be stepping in for me.”

Canary made a very dispassionate sound. “I’m not meant for management, and bureaucracy. I like it in the lab.”

“Neither am I,” Killua said bitterly. “And I’ve already requested Ikalgo to be transferred from legal to help you.”

“At least that.” Her voice showed no enthusiasm at the prospect, even though she was as much Ikalgo’s buddy as Killua’s.

“And you can always ask Alluka for help too, she has her ways.” He wanted to change subjects as quickly as possible, his sister had questioned his decision enough.

“She does, that’s true.” Canary winked at her girlfriend. 

Alluka was still sulking, but she extended her hand to grab Canary’s.

“I have another motive to invite you here,” Killua said.

“Oh?”

“I want you to help us assemble the equipment, and rebuild some of the stuff.” 

Canary touched her lips with her index finger. “That’s a wise choice, amidst the utter silliness of your plans.” 

Alluka nodded in agreement. “Yeah, you need to stop Gon before he starts blowing money off on some junk.” She turned to Canary. “Gon is the idiot who put him up to this.”

“Ah, Gon, your artist friend.” 

“Yeah.” Killua smiled. He had shown Canary some of the sketches, without elaborating what they were for.

“I knew there was some dark secret to that art,” Canary teased. “Now you’ll have to tell me everything.” She went up to Killua and hooked her elbow around his arm. 

“I will,” he promised. 

 

*

 

It took them about a month to collect the equipment. Including special suits and helmets, much sturdier and protective, when it came to pollution and radiation, even compared to the already very robust things Killua and Alluka had designed for the rifts. Killua used the kitty design for his helmet and made his suit in shades of grey and black. While Gon’s suit kept its organic design, just the greens and browns became darker, less flashy. Canary’s expertise with super textiles and nano materials proved crucial. 

In the meantime Alluka created a remote version of Nanika for them. A special AI to help them with networks down in the pillar. 

Killua kept it all secret from his family until the very last moment. He expected them to react poorly and that proved on the money. There was screaming and pleading, emotional blackmail and threats. All kinds of attempts at manipulation. 

He stood his ground. There was nothing they could do to him, even when they tried to involve Alluka. His sister had her own plans and she wanted to cut the family off anyway, they had no leverage. 

Killua's family situation was not the only one strained by their plans. Gon did not go home at night half the time. He slept on Killua's couch. Melancholy crept into his expression at times, and tainted his excitement. 

Neither of them managed to reconcile with their parents before they departed. Even Alluka's last words to Killua were that if he died down there she was going to kick his ass. 

They travelled to the pillar Dr Cheadle had come back through and began their descent. 

Initially the levels resembled the ones Killua had known all his life: sanitised and bathed in industrial light, but distinctly lived in. There were signs of human activity everywhere. Killua spotted several crews of archeologists a day - or a cycle as the people in the pillars called what passed for a day in a place with no sun and hardly any windows, which never showed anything other than the perpetual artificial dusk of the rifts. 

Every so often one could even find something akin to a settlement, centred around a rudimentary inn. People who ran these establishments offered food and drink from the platforms, because at this depth keeping the supply line up posed no difficulty. It took a few days tops for a delivery to get there. The places also provided basic facilities, cots for sleeping and bathrooms. One could also restock in one of the businesses that sprouted around the inns. They accepted a broad range of currency, from actual platformer money to all kinds of barter. 

Networks, servers and routers were plentiful, ready to provide information. Also to hack and infect unwise users with malware. Competition between archaeologists drove them to use dirty tactics like leaving viruses and bots on the public networks and servers. Especially that some people preferred to scavenge from others than put in the work and find their own artifacts. Nanika AI protected them several times from a cyber attack. 

Apart from the purposefully installed web technology they found several remnants of constructor robots. Some were barely recognisable, due to scavenger activity. 

So many people chose to live in there. Killua tried to hide his surprise and suppress his judgement, though he could never picture himself permanently stuck in that starless  environment. 

Then there were those that triggered Killua’s every self-preservation instinct. Pillarers who could not ascend to the platforms because the law up there, or their general life situation, banished them to the depths. 

On the eighth day of their journey they got to quite a large settlement with three inns to choose from. Killua checked them all out while Gon went shopping. He booked them two actual beds, not cots this time, and went to the bar, where he and Gon agreed to meet. He expected not to find his friend there and have to wait for him, but Gon was sitting at one of the tall tables. He must have found nothing interesting at the market. 

A man leaned dangerously close to Gon, who maintained some distance, but not enough for Killua’s taste. Especially given that Killua recognised the guy. Illumi, Z Corp’s head of security and Killua’s oldest brother kept this one on the retainer as one of the enforcers of various dubious dealings the conglomerate engaged in. This man had always creeped Killua out. There was something to his behaviour, like the way he looked at Killua and Alluka when they were teens waiting in Illumi’s aircar one time. Illumi was supposed to take them home, but he stopped on a strange platform to meet with this man. On several other occasions his guy had leered and spoken in innuendos and Killua hated being around him. 

Killua came closer, bracing himself to stay cool under the gross smile. 

“Oh, Killua you’re back,” Gon noticed him immediately. “This is Hisoka,” he introduced them.

“I know, who this is.” Killua tried to keep his voice neutral, it came out icy instead. Of all the unlucky coincidences that could have occurred this may actually have been the worst. 

“Oh, indeed.” Hisoka grimaced. The veiled threat in that expression assured Killua that he had interrupted something. “I sometimes do small jobs for Killua’s family business. How’s Illumi?” Hisoka moved closer to Gon with unwarranted familiarity as if he wanted to explain his connection to Killua’s family.  He managed to catch eye contact with Gon for a brief moment and flash him a seductive grin. Gon smiled back, which filled Killua with unexpected rage. 

“Illumi is fine. I’m surprised you’re here and not with him.” 

“Oh, I don’t like the platformer lifestyle, too many rules, too many people trying to enforce them. A tedious place. Though I miss your brother at times and visit occasionally, since he’s fun.” Hisoka talked to Killua, but did not peel his gaze away from Gon for one second. 

Killua tried not to snort. There were many adjectives that described his brother, “fun” did not feature among them.

“Sure, that’s sad you can’t see him more.” Like right now, Killua thought venomously.

“So Gon,” Killua looked at his friend. “I got us beds at the inn. We could go now.”

“The inns here,” Hisoka said to Gon, “hardly deserve the name. But as I told you earlier, Gon, I have my private suit. You could crash there.”

“Me and Killua?” 

“No, I was thinking just you and me,” Hisoka licked his lips. “It’ll be warm and cosy like that.” 

Gon laughed and finished his drink.

“Thanks for the offer, but we’ve already paid for the room. Maybe if I had known before Killua arranged that.” He got up and jogged up to Killua. “Bye, Hisoka. It was nice to chat.”

They left the bar, but Killua felt strangely furious. He kept recalling Gon’s last words, before he said goodbye. They were stuck in his head. Why could he not move on?

“This guy is trouble,” he said to Gon just to refocus himself.

“I suspected he is, that’s why I decided to be friendly. I didn’t want to start anything.”

“It’s a fine line to walk though, the flirt made him eager.”

“I think he was eager from the start, I don’t know if I could have changed that by being cold and unresponsive.”

“I guess, he’s always been a creep. I just hope he won’t follow us.”

“I don’t think so. He asked me about our expedition, but I kept it vague and said we’re on our way down not up, so that he wouldn’t think we have anything of value. And I didn’t tell him where we’re going or why.”

“Good.” Killua relaxed a bit but his brain still circled back to Gon’s words in the bar. “The less he knows about us the better.” 

“Agreed.” Gon reached for Killua’s hand and squeezed it reassuringly. “You’re the only person I trust down here.”

“Yeah, same,” Killua whispered, not sure if Gon even caught that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My dear and talented friend Jeng drew a beautiful picture for this fic, it's in [chapter two](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19004929/chapters/45236305). Please click the pic and like and reblog the pic!
> 
> thank you to everyone who's reading <3


	12. Chapter 11: Level -200

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Going down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i guess this chapter sets the trend as to why this might be the fluffiest thing i've ever written... and i was not going for that so well.. fail

* * *

Below level one hundred everything changed. Finding the way began to mean a serious search. As above, they stopped by the servers installed near the stairs but rarely did they find reliable recent maps of the area there. Corridors lead to dead ends or staircases that only went up. Sometimes they had to get into a neighbouring pillar to be able to go down at all. This surprised Killua. Near the platforms the pillars appeared to be separate, linked only by train or walk bridges. This far down, however, the structures were far more interconnected. This only added to the confusion of traversing them, because keeping track of where one was or where one came from proved a significant challenge. Without the equipment, they would have been lost many times over.

Killua found himself unable to efficiently track the time within the pillars. He knew that the lack of a clearly discernible day-night cycle affected him. Every moment felt like deep night. Only the neural network of his body and suit told him how many hours had passed. Though his brain was playing tricks on him, a strange little voice kept suggesting that the cerebral implants were lying, so were all the clocks in the robots and other equipment. Not only did they mislead them about the passage of time but also their position. Despite the information on various screens, the voice said, he and Gon had lost their way long ago. 

He fought fiercely not to give credence to the voice, because he knew it was only going to get worse the farther they went. And Gon remained unfazed, cheerful and focused. He lead Killua like a tour guide, analysing their surroundings, explaining things, pointing out interesting features. Down there Killua found it harder to immerse himself in the sunny mood his radiant friend projected. He tried anyway, because his own brain offered little solace, but a generous amount of doubt. 

Inside the pillar it was neither cold nor hot, the air had a stale quality to it. The smells changed from unexpectedly pleasant to pungent. They still could experience them by themselves, the air toxicity stayed low most of the time. Only a couple of times the scout drones warned them to put on the helmets. Even then the pollution would not have killed them if they had kept the helmets off.  

His own new smell on the other hand took some getting used to. The suit designed by Alluka and Canary worked perfectly, it kept his temperature steady and sweating to the minimum. They bathed in water when it was available and the toxicity levels didn't trigger any alarms in their equipment, but sometimes they had to resort to chemical cleaning with a special powder. Killua felt he smelt of the thing even after he had washed with water and gel. Gon did not seem as affected in Killua's opinion, his scent remained pleasant. 

They almost stopped casually running into people, they crossed some levels and met no one there. Few traces, if any, of human activity were scattered along the corridors or within some chambers. Gon treated these more like warning signs than invitations to interact. He wanted to know whether people were around, but he was not keen on meeting with them. This deep, he explained they were likely to come across archaeological teams going up. Those guys were notoriously trigger-happy.   

This deep, settlements or organised shelters did not function. So every break meant searching for a safe spot to camp. They would enter chambers looking for hard-to-access ledges or sub-floors, places not clearly visible from the main corridors. 

Sleep never came quickly to Killua once they settled down for what counted as night. The hard ground did not help, but it was the sounds that creeped him out. The pillars constantly groaned and whistled. Water was always flowing somewhere. 

When they were walking, the noise of their suits and steps drowned some of that out; besides, they chatted usually. During the stops, though, it hit Killua all at once. He could not stop himself from searching for the source of the noises. Feeding the fear that someone might be roaming nearby, despite all the security sensors they set up around each camping site. 

Concentrating on Gon's breathing helped a bit, gave him limited reprieve, but he hardly ever felt truly rested, regardless of how long their break was. 

 

*

 

His legs felt weak, he had to pay attention to moving them. He focused on his steps, but that somehow made things worse. He was suddenly faced with the startling fact that he had no idea how legs worked, in particular what one was supposed to do to make them walk. He tried to command them anyway. How did it go? Foot first or knee first? And well, up or forward? His exhausted brain blanked on the answer and he almost fell face first into the tiled floor. Gon's arms wrapped around him protectively. 

“You're in no condition to go any further,” he said once he brought Killua back to a more or less upright position. 

“Nah, I'm fine, I just tripped.”

“Yeah, over your own legs, because you're too run down to lift them properly. We'll rest.”

“Here?” 

“Nah, it's not a great spot.” Gon looked around the hall, it was at least a hundred metre wide, with tiled floors, supported by many colourful columns. It spread empty in all directions. They came across places like this more frequently now. Areas that puzzled Killua as he could not fathom what purpose they could have ever served. Had they even had any functionality to begin with? Or had the constructors built them to replace something else?  

A while back Killua began to label the places they went through as ordered,  chaotic and under construction. The chaotic ones contained ancient buildings or even whole neighbourhoods in styles Killua had only seen in architecture history books. In those areas they found shelter easily, usually with running water and even hydroponic farms with green plants or edible fungus, a nice addition to their diet of protein packages. 

Areas under construction filled Killua with dread, though Gon had a lot of trust in the constructors to wait for them to move on before continuing their work. 

Ordered ones looked liked the place they were crossing. Empty, eerie, precisely organised.

“We need to get out of here,” Gon decided. 

“Agreed.” Killua was not about to protest. “Let's go.” He attempted walking again, but Gon grabbed his wrist. 

“I'm carrying you.”

“What? Don't be stupid.”

“It'll be faster this way.” 

Killua wanted to protest, but Gon just squatted. “Hop on my back,” he commanded. 

“This is so stupid,” Killua mumbled but climbed on. 

 

*

 

In the end he was not sure how long Gon had walked, because he dozed off with his arms and legs wrapped around Gon, awash with the smell of Gon's hair. 

He woke up in a building on a couch. A fluorescent glow entered through a tall window. It illuminated Gon, who was rummaging in some cabinet. 

“How long was I out?”

“Four hours.” Gon turned around and headed towards the couch. 

“Damn, long,” Killua said. “I'm sorry.”

“It's okay.” Gon sat down next to him and took Killua's hand. “Will you tell me what happened?”

“I'm not sick.”

“That's great. But eliminating everything you're not will take us forever.” Gon squeezed his hand and smiled encouragingly. “I know something is wrong with you, I'm not blind.”

Killua looked at their joined hands. 

“It’s not a big deal, I’ll work it out.”

“Why alone, though? I know you don’t like to talk about your feelings, but we’re here together specifically to be able to count on each other.”

Gon always won in logic, because he always took the simplest and most sensible position. Killua pouted. How annoying, he thought. 

“I can’t sleep in here. The sounds keep me distracted. Even if I manage to fall asleep it’s very shallow, every tiny noise wakes me right up.”

“We can’t continue like this,” Gon pondered out loud.

“I’m not going back! I can’t jeopardise your mission.” Resentment was boiling in Killua. He hated himself for not being able to deliver on his promise to help his friend. 

 “Well, I don’t think that has to happen.” Gon reassured Killua and gently stroked Killua’s palm with his thumb. “We just need to figure out a way for you to sleep better, that’s all.”

“Yeah, sure, let’s make the sounds here less creepy,” Killua snapped, and regretted it immediately, because he was being silly. “Dummy,” he said more to himself than to Gon, but his friend could not know that Killua was actually angry with himself. 

Gon giggled.

“Maybe I am…” he paused. “But right now… you slept soundly when I was carrying you. And it must have been pretty bumpy.”

“So what? I’ll sleep when you carry me, and you when I carry you? It’ll slow us down.”

“True, that won’t work. But maybe we can recreate it.”

“Excuse me?”

“You know, you’ll wrap yourself around me when we sleep.”

“What will that accomplish!?” Killua blushed. Cuddling Gon... It had crossed his mind along with other, raunchier thoughts… 

“We won’t know until we try, but if it works, you’ll be back to your normal self in no time. And our pace will not slow down.” 

“Fine, we can try it.” 

Killua felt a pang of anxiety… or was it anticipation.

 

*

 

For the first time since they began their descent he slept through the whole break. He woke up in Gon’s arms. He felt rested and fresh, and oddly at peace. He had experienced desire when he had thought about Gon in the past, and his had not passed by any means. But this was them finding a solution to a problem that could jeopardize their mission. Gon offering help as bluntly and openly as he always did. Killua had never had a friend he trusted so fully. This eased his mind during their descent, turning down the deceitful voices, not only helped him sleep. 

When they were inspecting the neighbourhood they found a portable drive hidden deep within one of the houses. It contained a map to a stash. The place was marked with Ging’s seal. They had a solid clue.  

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My dear and talented friend Jeng drew another beautiful picture for this fic, it's in [chapter 1](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19004929/chapters/45131566#workskin). Please click the pic and like and reblog the pic!
> 
> thank you to everyone who's reading and commenting <3


	13. Chapter 12: Level -230

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gon and Killua find a frustrating neighbourhood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some violence happens in this chapter.

* * *

The neighbourhood was all high arches, tall spires and outside galleries supported by slender columns. The colour of the stone must have faded over time and now was grey and beige, but Gon could still distinguish the floral carvings on the walls and railings with tiny hints of old more vibrant hues here and there. It looked like foliage used to cover most of the area, but now all greenery was long gone. 

While he preferred to rest in former residential areas, this one did not inspire his trust or excitement. The rooms were too spacious, while the tall windows allowed anyone to peer inside. For the last few hours they had been looking for something more akin to a bathroom, so that they could protect themselves properly. It turned out, however, that whoever used to dwell in this neighbourhood did not mind windows in their bathrooms. The best thing they had found so far was some service closet, too small for them to camp. They had to cross this place to get to Ging’s stash, but it stretched for kilometres and several levels. They had entered it three hours after their last break and were not even halfway through now when they needed to rest again. Finally he felt like he had a clear destination in his search, and the architecture decided to get in the way. His frustration grew by the minute.

Killua was shooting footage of the place for Alluka. Gon agreed with him, his sister was bound to enjoy the hell out of the rich architecture. Generally Killua’s mood and attitude had improved greatly once he started to get a good night’s sleep. Gon also felt more cheerful after the snuggly “nights.” He had not had anyone to cuddle for years and he now realised he had missed that feeling. The memory of their last sleep break filled him with warmth. 

“This art feels out of place here.” Killua’s voice broke Gon’s train of thought.

“What art?” 

Killua pointed to a set of abstract geometric shapes scratched into the stone wall. . 

Gon felt a shiver run down his spine. 

“We need to get out of view, and be extra careful from now on,” he practically hissed. He checked the guns attached to his thigh and belt. He also patted his pockets to see if additional charges and bullets were where they should be. 

“What’s going on?” Killua asked with concern. He also inspected his weaponry, mirroring Gon. “What are these drawings?”

“Cyborg territory signals.” Gon walked deeper into the building, leaving the gallery they were standing in. He called their robots closer and activated their battle modes for extra firepower, but mostly to have a good early warning system. 

Killua followed him, now as fully alert as Gon. His steps became quiet and he was scanning the surroundings.

“Cyborgs? I mean many people are cyborgs on the platforms, if they don’t have the money for full body part regrowth.” Killua seemed confused about the whole thing. 

“They are pillar dwellers, for real, they never go to the platforms, they can hardly ever be seen above level one hundred fifty. They kidnap archaeologists and hack their neural networks. From what I’ve heard they can’t reproduce biologically, or choose not to, but they can live a really long time, both because their bodies’ durability is extended through technology, but also if their body is at its limit they jump into a new one, so to speak. The kidnapped and prepped one. Like on the platforms, as long as the original brain is intact they survive. But unlike up there they can somehow move the brain from one body to another, from what I heard.”

Killua was staring at Gon wide-eyed.

“Are you serious?”

“Absolutely.” Gon perfectly understood that for someone who had always lived on the platforms and paid no attention to the world underneath, this sounded like horror fiction. “That’s why they have distinct hunting territories and they are usually solitary or form small groups, because they are fiercely protective of their spare bodies from other cyborgs.”

“Dark chasms,” Killua cursed under his breath. “That’s fucked up.”

Gon could not agree more.

They put on their helmets because they helped with utilising their sensors to the full and proceeded to get through the neighbourhood as fast as possible. 

 

*

 

They moved very slowly through the area despite Gon’s best efforts to find quick and safe routes. There just were not many of those. The architecture provided too much visibility. It took them two cycles to get to the lower level, but the neighbourhood did not end, neither did the scratch markings. Which made them both look over their shoulders every couple of minutes. Gon had the feeling they were being watched, but hoped he was just being paranoid. 

Unfortunately the world proved him right.

The cyborgs prepared an ambush in a street they had to cross in the open. Gon could not see any building that would take them to the other side under cover. Their drones came back showing them some of the traps laid out to catch them and their robots, plus images of at least two cyborgs lying in wait. 

“They do not look anything like people with prosthetics,” Killua said watching the footage. 

“They don't,” Gon agreed, assessing the creatures. Platformer prosthetics either imitated actual limbs very faithfully or had beautiful artistic lines. The pillar cyborgs were vaguely humanoid in shape, with metal and synthetic parts attached in crude ways, wires sticking out of grayish stretched skin.  They mostly still had hair, a puzzling feature in Gon’s opinion, he did not see the point in that. Neither did he understand why they wore some rudimentary clothes. Maybe to hide some of the weaponry? Or some tradition from when they used to be human?

One of the cyborgs had blond hair sticking up above a rather big visual apparatus that looked like two connected triangles and stuck out of the sides of the creature’s head. The other one they could see had shorter brownish hair and a marking on its forehead, not unlike the territorial signs they had encountered throughout the area. 

“These arm prosthetics look like weapons, and that stuff attached to this one’s coat, I think these are explosives.” Killua was assessing their hunters. “I'd say we need to aim for the heavily wired parts and joints, until we know how durable the metal is. The synthetics may be even better at shock absorption if they are modern enough so I’d target cables first, metal second and the synthetics as a last resort.”

Gon was looking at him in awe. When he’d agreed to take Killua on the expedition he had mostly considered companionship and help in rougher areas. Not a tactical advantage due to Killua actually being an engineer.  

“I think we should send the robots on the ceiling, but we need to scout it with the drones right now,” Killua said, programming the drones and sending them out.   

“The level’s ceiling?”

“Yup.”

“Why? They can provide cover and suppressive fire down here,” Gon protested. 

“Yeah, but there are traps and, apart from an obvious few the drones had noticed, we don't know how many or where exactly they are. The robots can scan the area better from above and give us the info. And also shoot from there.”

“The accuracy and penetration will drop.” 

“I know. They will act as a distraction, though, and we'll try to outrun those uggos.”

“They'll be faster than us on foot.” Gon pondered for a second and caught what Killua was getting at. “But not on airboards.”

“If we fly high enough maybe they won’t even spot us, though that could be too optimistic.” 

 

*

 

They waited for the drones to return before they planned the separate routes for their robots and themselves. They also established rendezvous points. The robots took the longer way around to be able to climb the columns, so they disappeared between the buildings. 

Unfortunately they could not keep close to the buildings, not with the unknown amount of boobytraps awaiting them. They got onto their airborads and tried to ascend quickly but that did not help, they got spotted almost instantly and the cyborgs opened fire.  

Gon shot back, and there was some support from above, though that mostly worked to create confusion. Killua did not try to retaliate, he urged Gon to fly away as fast as possible. 

A motion detector in Gon’s suit signalled a rapid movement from their left, though Gon could clearly see the two cyborgs in front of him.

“There's more,” he yelled to Killua through their connection. 

“I know,” Killua answered only after they dodged an attack from another cyborg, one with longish black hair and another marking on its forehead. This one had enhanced legs and could jump really far and high. 

The other two cyborgs moved as well, also capable of leaping several metres at a time.

The blond one threw explosives in their direction, and they had to separate to avoid the bombs.

Gon had to concentrate on keeping himself alive. The cyborgs were trying to get them to fly lower, closer to the buildings and the traps in them. At the same time they blocked him from flying straight forward, towards the wall of the pillar and possible windows there. They could escape into the rifts if they were able to find an opening. 

The bombs were much worse than the bullets, because they sent out a lot of debris into the air once they hit the buildings. Gon was worried about the airboard’s engine, even with its rift capabilities. 

Finally, after much manoeuvring, Gon managed to fly higher outside of the bomb range. To his horror he saw Killua far below. He was being stalked by one of the cyborgs, the other two following in the distance, undoubtedly planning something. He was dangerously close to the architecture. Gon could see Killua’s strategy, sort of, because his friend kept the pursuing cyborg between himself and the other attackers, so they were less inclined to shoot.

Killua dived down and the cyborg leaped behind him. Gon’s breath caught in his throat. He heard a sound of some machinery and a long, sharpened metal beam skewered the cyborg to a wall of one of the buildings below.

Gon gasped with relief as he saw Killua soar out of there, while the other cyborgs froze and started yelling something, what sounded like “sub.” 

They were stunned for only a moment though, they did not even waste time to check if their comrade was still alive. The blond cyborg shot out a grappling hook that swished past Gon, and didn’t hit him, only because he avoided it at the last second. In a moment the creature hung not far away from Gon’s current position. He could no longer pay attention to what was going on elsewhere, though the sounds coming from below only made him angry and scared for Killua. 

He had to deal with this one fast and come back for Killua. He had to protect his friend, Killua could not get hurt. Gon knew he could not stand it if he did. He needed to survive himself, though, before he could do anything.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also it ends in a cliff hanger... I'm sorry XD  
> There are a few cliff hangers in this story, I hope you'll be ok with that.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who's reading and commenting, you're the best <3


	14. Chapter 13: Level -234

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a battle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing action is hard, I hope this chapter is not too confusing.

* * *

 

The airboard moved fast, but so did the cyborg behind him. Even though it was theoretically dangling from lines and bouncing off the level ceiling it managed to develop a frightening speed. With its movements chaotic thanks to the rope swinging it, it successfully made Gon’s escape slow and meandering. He was getting there, however, to the pillar wall. He scanned it for openings or at least weak points. 

The cyborg behind him sometimes shot at Gon, but seemed to mostly concentrate on catching him. Which at the moment was not the most convenient thing. Gon wanted it to blow a hole in the outer wall. 

He provoked it, faking problems with his airboard when he got close enough to the wall. The cyborg took the bait and launched its bombs at Gon, who dodged them skilfully. 

The explosions weakened the wall but did not break through entirely. Gon flew in a circle around the cyborg to confuse it. 

He shot at it, too, though that did little damage. He only managed to weaken one of its legs when he hit an open joint. 

When he felt the creature was disoriented he again flew by the wall slowly enough for it to be able to launch bombs at him. The ruse worked and this time the explosions made a chunk of the wall fall off into the city below. 

Gon dashed through the new hole. In the rifts the air was toxic and the warning systems in his suit instantly flared up. He took his surroundings in using ultrasounds and other spectrums that did not rely on the visible light, because it was hardly present at this depth. His helmet produced a 3D image in vivid unnatural colours. He saw many odd beams and remains of old long-ruined structures jutting out. There was a large nest of coiling cables treacherously hanging nearby. 

Gon flew up and hid among the architecture. He waited. Soon the creature crawled out of the hole and looked around. The new environment did not seem to affect it in any significant way. It held on to the wall searching for Gon. 

Having thoroughly analysed the 3D map, Gon knew what he had to do. He waited until the cyborg got to the right place on the wall and flew into view. The creature spotted him instantly and positioned itself to leap. It moved more slowly with one leg not fully operational. The new pace should have made him happy, with the superhuman speed gone Gon’s chances grew. Everything that extended this fight, however, kept Gon away from Killua. That thought was nagging at him, that he was playing cat and mouse with the cyborg, while he had no idea what was going on in the pillar. 

Soon, he promised to himself as the creature detached from the wall, soon this will be over and I’ll be back with Killua.

Gon took out his gun, pretending to want to take a stand. He shot at the creature for good measure, any damage to it was in his favour after all. It jumped and he quickly changed the target of his bullets. He aimed up and fired at a large metal plate above them that was barely hanging on. It dropped, forcing the cyborg to land on the huge ball of cables to avoid the metal. Gon flew down quickly and did not let that happen. He punched the plate so it ended up on top of the cyborg. He used his airboard’s booster to push the creature underneath him into the wires, to trap it there. It tried to resist but its footing was too weak, every movement made the cables fluctuate, change position and suck the cyborg in, making it more and more trapped.

Gon flew off after several seconds. He could not use too much of the booster, he ran the risk of using all of the power up and he would fall into the rift if that happened. The battery icon was already dangerously orange. 

The cyborg took the now bent metal plate off itself. It was buried chest deep in the cables nest, thrashing around furiously. That just led to the cables shifting and swallowing it more. It shot a grappling hook at the wall instead, in an attempt to pull itself out, but Gon was faster. He took out his laser knife and cut the line off.

The next lines were not shot at the wall, but at him. He avoided three, but the fourth one went through his board and pulled him down. The board started to make weird sounds, but the suit controls showed it was still at 60% capacity. 

Gon fired at the cyborg with a gun in his left hand, but in the right he readied the laser knife. From this distance he finally managed to do some damage with the bullets before he was up close and personal with the creature, looking straight into its odd triangular vision apparatus. He holstered his gun quickly and tried to prevent the cyborg from getting a good hold of him. It hit him and he retaliated with the knife. They grappled for several seconds, Gon was slashing furiously, concentrating only on pushing away the creature’s arms before it could do any damage to him. 

At last they cyborg stopped moving. Liquids were oozing out of it. The sight made Gon’s stomach turn.  

Gon was kind of lying on the cable nest, but also his legs were hovering in the air. It took careful manoeuvring to get back to an upright position. 

He looked at the cyborg one last time. It was not what he wanted. He was not exactly sure what he wanted, but this was definitely not it. He had to leave this deliberation for later though. He could finally search for his best friend. He had no clue where Killua was and that stressed him out. 

He rushed back as fast as the damaged board allowed him.

 

*

 

Gon went back to the place of the initial attack, but he only found the other dead cyborg there, still skewered with a metal beam. The creature was not moving in any way and sensors in Gon’s suit did not detect any electromagnetic activity coming from it. There was just a still ongoing stream of gross black and brownish liquids flowing out of it along the wall it was pinned to. 

He was not sure what he was expecting, that Killua would be waiting there for him?

Gon scanned the area to find any clues as to where Killua and the third attacker might have disappeared to. Urgency made his thoughts race. 

He could spot battle damage in several directions. He followed them up until he found a promising trail. It took him towards the staircase to the lower level. Annoyance and fear constantly present at the back of his head, nagging that he should hurry. That his search lasted too long, that his skills were too poor to protect the most important person in his life.

Gon got off his board and left it by the entrance to a long dark corridor. One of their robots was hanging out nearby, he ordered it to pack the board. He also took extra ammo and reloaded his guns. 

He entered. Part of him wanted to run, terrified of what might be awaiting him at the other end. His common sense urged to tread carefully, he could not help Killua if the damn cyborg killed him. 

The floor underneath his feet cracked as if he was walking on gravel, he realised it must have been the shards from the lights that used to illuminate the corridor. That was why it was dark inside.

Then his suit’s infrared sensor picked up a humanoid moving in his direction. It could not be a cyborg, they did not display people-shaped in this spectrum, they had too many mechanical parts that gave off unnatural temperatures. This also was not Killua, unless his suit lost all its trackers and communication gear, because hailing on any frequency did not elicit any reaction. Gon took out his guns and moved to the wall, ready for whoever was approaching. They did not change their pace, even though they must have noticed Gon. Their posture suggested they were carrying something over their shoulder.

The person just walked past Gon, who was filled with dread at this point. He needed to know.

“What are you carrying?” he asked. He did not care who the stranger was anymore, he just had to know.

“A carcass,” the person said in a voice that felt vaguely familiar even through the helmet’s speaker. 

“Whose?” Gon’s voice shook.

“I’m not sure this deserves to be called a who,” the stranger pondered out loud, he came across as very casual and maybe even amused if his manner of speaking was any indication. “It’s a cyborg.”

Gon suddenly felt part of the tension disappear from his body and he almost dropped the guns he was holding. 

“Where’s the third one?” the person asked.

“In the rifts, hanging in a ball of cables,” Gon answered. 

“Hmmm, at least recovering that will be mildly entertaining,” the person said. “I thought you two newbies would make for a good bait, but you fended for yourselves far better than I anticipated, alas, you made this boring. Though these three had been sitting here ripe for the picking for a long time.”

“Picking?”

“Scientists from the platforms pay handsomely for these, dead or alive. I prefer dead, easier to transport.” 

“I see,” Gon really wanted to move on. “I’ll be going now.”

“You could come with me, we could have fun together.”

“I’m not really here to have fun,” Gon tried to say as neutrally as possible. He was growing annoyed with the delay. And the come on, though it confirmed his initial suspicions as to the identity of the stranger.

“Hmmm, you’re not as interesting as I thought.”

Gon felt that he had indulged the man enough, he did not care to prolong this. Killua was his priority.

“Sorry to disappoint.” He wasn’t. “Good bye.” 

He ran off, barely registering the short reply.

He found Killua much further down the corridor. Some lights were spared here and Gon could finally see more than a map generated by his suit’s sensors. Killua was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall. He was breathing. 

The relief that washed over Gon completely took over his actions. He ran up and dropped to his knees next to Killua. Then he just embraced him. Soon Gon took of his own helmet and then Killua’s. His friend was smiling lightly.

It was the most beautiful thing Gon had ever seen. A soft and welcoming smile. Killua’s eyes focused on Gon, looked at him with recognition and happiness. 

Gon cupped his face and stroked his cheeks with his thumbs. Then he kissed Killua. A long proper kiss. A reciprocated kiss. A perfect kiss. 

Reluctantly he pulled away. 

“I’m sorry it took me so long.”

“Don’t be an idiot.” Killua snorted. He was blushing furiously, but also his smile had not faded, on the contrary it got brighter. “I’m glad you’re alive and unharmed.”

“Yeah. Though my board got damaged.” He got up and extended a hand to Killua. “Come I’ll show you.”

“You’ll have to bring it here.” Killua said while turning his eyes to the floor. “I can’t get up.”

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, another cliff hanger... I'm sorry. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone who's reading and commenting. <3


	15. Chapter 14: Level -235

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> important things get discussed and explained

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **warning:** there is an impromptu surgery going on in this chapter  
> but there is also fluff, because this fic is very cheesy

* * *

 

Gon was kneeling next to Killua asking him what had happened. What was wrong? Why he could not get up. Killua’s head was spinning. From pain primarily, but now also very much from the kiss. He wanted to talk about the kiss and not about his pain. 

He reached out to Gon to touch him, to pull him into another kiss. He had exhausted all his rational conversation capabilities for now. At least until he got another fix of Gon’s lips. 

Gon was a little reluctant but capitulated and allowed the kiss. It felt so good. 

“Please tell me what’s going on,” Gon urged once they stopped, but he stayed close, his cheek next to Killua’s.

“The cyborg crushed my leg. The knee and thigh bones are all shattered, only the suit is keeping them together.”

“What?!” Gon was staring at him wide eyed. “This... what... No.”

“Gon,” Killua gently touched his face. “It’s going to be fine.”

“No... I need to take you back to the platforms… now.” He tried to push his arms under Killua to lift him. 

“Wait.”

That did not work the first time round, Gon did not relent.

“Wait!” Killua said more forcefully. “Don’t move me.”

“Why?” Gon stopped but did not remove his hands.

“Because I need your help. I have a plan. The leg is getting swollen and might get infected. You’ll need to help me cut it off.” 

“I…”

“Relax. I’ll get it regrown when we come back.” 

“You know it takes a long time to rehabilitate it.” 

“I do, but the priority is me not dying right now. Plus us finding your father.” Killua knew all too well what regrowing meant. He had spent months visiting Alluka in the hospital when she was undergoing her surgeries and therapies, which replaced some of her organs. 

“That is off… we need to go back.”

“No we don’t, we’ll be fine.” 

“You can’t walk without a leg.” 

“I’ll get myself a new one, I told you I have a plan,” he reassured Gon by stroking his cheek. “Now get the robots here, I’ll need something clean to sit on.”

Gon nodded and walked off into the darkness of the corridor. At some point when he was gone Killua must have lost consciousness, because he was brought back by Gon gently shaking him. 

“My boyfriend is back,” Killua tried. He wanted to see the reaction, make sure the kiss was not part of his delirium.

“Yeah.” Gon leaned in and pecked him on the forehead. “What do you want me to do?”

“You’ll have to undress me, because we have just one spare suit each and it’d be a waste to cut up this one.”

“Makes sense.”

“And then you’ll have to help me cut the leg off with the laser knife. It’ll instantly cauterise the wound, so there should be little blood loss.” 

“Did you have any painkillers on you? Have you taken any?” Gon asked while he unzipped Killua’s suit and gently pulled it off.

“Yes, but it’s too weak. I’ll need a shot of something stronger before we do this.”

Gon nodded. He got up and rummaged in the packs carried by their robots. He took out a sleeping bag and spread it nearby. He prepared a new suit on it. Then he got out the electronic syringe and a vial. 

He injected Killua’s right hip.

“Good,” Killua said. Numbness started to spread, giving him reprieve. 

Now came the time to remove the pantlegs. Gon moved him slowly, but each change of position made the pain pulse. The medication helped a lot, but was far from perfect yet. Killua dreaded the moment of the cutting. 

Killua thought it took forever before the suit came off completely. Each tug sent a flash of pain, though they were getting weaker and weaker. In the end he sat by the wall in just a pair of boxers and a tank top. His leg looked horrific in the fluorescent light, swollen, bloody, with bone fragments sticking out. Even with the healthy leg just next to it to compare, imagining its normal shape proved hard. Killua closed his eyes. 

“Give me the knife and hold me down,” Killua ordered, though he did not have the guts to look at Gon. 

“No, the robot will hold you down, I’ll cut,” Gon said very calmly. 

“Fine.”

Two of their robots used their weight to pin Killua to the wall, obscuring his view of Gon. Maybe that was for the best. He kept his eyes shut and tried to think about the fact that he and Gon might have just become a thing. He had not expected this, Gon had always behaved in a casual fashion. Killua had had no doubt he cared, just not like that. Somehow he completely misread his friend’s intentions and feelings. Sometimes being wrong turned out for the best.

He cringed when he heard the sizzling, but he hardly felt a thing.  

“It’s off,” Gon said after a much shorter moment than Killua anticipated. 

The robots moved away and Killua looked down.

“It’s so gross.”

“Kind of,” Gon agreed. He pushed the limb away. “I’ll dress you now.”  

 

*

 

Killua slept for over thirty hours after that. At some point Gon moved them back into the residential area. He chose a tall round tower with lovely arched windows. He managed to find a mattress and some pillows too. They all made a pretty comfy bed and Killua was thankful for it. Yet he preferred when Gon stayed next to him, held his hand, or snuggled and gave him soft kisses. They did not talk too much as Killua slipped in and out of consciousness without much control or warning. 

 Almost three cycles passed before he could sit up on his own or feed himself. Up till then Gon had assisted him with everything with surprising humour and tenderness. They joked and chatted as much as Killua’s drowsiness allowed.   

Then the conversation returned.

“We’ll start going up today,” Gon announced when Killua asked why did it look like he was packing up their little camp.

“Gon, we can move, but there is no reason to go up,” Killua protested.

“It’ll only get more dangerous down there.”

“I can imagine.”

“You need to be fully capable,” it showed that phrasing this sentence came with difficulty to Gon. He was close to exploding and possibly yelling at Killua.

“I get that!” Killua yelled instead. “Let me tell you my plan first, you stubborn idiot.” A cold fury was enveloping him. He hated Gon’s assumption that now all was on his shoulders. That Killua had suddenly become dead weight and all was ruined. The whole expedition for nothing just because Killua was a noob who thought he could take on the pillars on his first try. He hated feeling useless to Gon. Especially that he did not have to be. 

“Fine.” Gon dropped next to Killua, his face was sour and pouty. “Also like you aren’t a stubborn idiot,” he mumbled and Killua burst into laughter. Gon snorted, he laughed as well. 

“When we were walking you told me that the constructors build themselves inside the pillars, that they have factories for putting together new robots and maintenance.”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

“You’ll take me to one and I’ll build myself a leg there.”

“How would the constructors know how to build a human leg?”

“They probably won’t. But I did a course in prosthetics at uni, and I’ve saved lots of useful schematics on a drive with Nanika before we left, including plans of limbs. If I can get inside a factory like that I can have a fully functional leg in a few cycles.”

“That’s amazing.” Gon was staring at him, his initial sulking gone. 

Killua shrugged. 

“But finding a factory might take a while, I’ve seen some constructors on the level below, but there’s no telling when they will go back to base.”

“Indeed, if we wait for them to do it on their own, but if you put me inside one and I can attach Nanika to it there will be a chance I could make it do exactly what I want it to.”   

Gon hummed. “I like this.” His eyes were sparking, there was none of the silent determination that had tainted them for the last couple of cycles.

Killua stretched his arms and lost balance almost falling to his side. He was not used to this new body, he hoped a mechanical leg would compensate well enough. 

Gon caught him and encased in a warm hug. He rocked them a bit and Killua savoured it, wrapping his arms around Gon’s neck. At least his new situation encouraged a lot of physical contact which made him happy. 

“Also, you’ve been to the lower level? Right? When I was out. I didn’t dream it? Especially that you’ve just mentioned it,” Killua whispered into Gon’s ear.

“Yeah…”

“Did you find Ging’s stash?” 

Gon was silent.

“So you did and you want to go further… you’re so full of it.”

“I would have taken you back up the pillar, before I did.”

“I know, because you’re an idiot and you’d sacrifice yourself for me.”

“That’s not idiotic, I care for you a lot.”

“Thank goodness that you care enough to listen to me.”

Gon snorted and Killua kissed him. 

“This is okay, right?” he asked after they broke away.

“What?” Gon replied, confused.

“The kissing. We haven’t discussed it.” 

“I’m not sure what there is to discuss. You’re a great kisser, I have no complaints. Well, maybe the length and frequency,” Gon teased.  

“What if I have complaints?” Killua smirked.

“Please, go ahead. I’ll gladly practice and improve on my failings.” Gon beamed.

Killua pinched him on the cheek to tone down the smug grin, it usually worked on Alluka. Gon on the other hand just somehow smiled wider.

“I called you my boyfriend.” He tried to be serious again, at least long enough to get some answers.

“You did.”

“So you agree to this...eh… title.”

Gon chuckled. Killua did too, the phrasing was ridiculous.

“I do, as long as you agree to be my boyfriend in return.”

“It’ll be only fair.” Killua had a few cheeky grins in his own repertoire. “Then it’s settled, once this excursion is over I’ll take you on a date.”

“I feel it’s my job, since I kissed you first, so it was like me asking you out.”

“I called you my boyfriend first.”

“That doesn’t sound legit,” Gon said and leaned in for another kiss. He probably thought that he was sealing his victory in this debate. Killua felt his argument was too good to drop it just because of a simple bribe like that. 

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no cliffhanger here.  
> a huge thank you to everyone reading and commenting <3


	16. Chapter 15: Level -587

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reassembly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some body horror in this chapter.  
> But also a lot of cheese XD

* * *

The constructors still instilled fear in Killua. The one Gon found doubly so, because of its size, at least ten metres long with appendages twice that length. Fortunately it behaved like all others. Sensing humans made it go into standby mode. They approached it, Gon carrying Killua over his shoulder. 

He lifted Killua so he could grab the edge of the building material compartment and pull himself in. Having just one leg made the process longer and less intuitive than it used to be, but Killua managed on his first try. The constructor stored all sorts of things there, metal plates and beams, bricks, a concrete mixer and other stuff the function of which eluded Killua. 

“Can you climb in?” he shouted to Gon, whom he could not see. 

“Yeah, give me a moment,” Gon answered.

Killua moved to the front of the robot, looking for its mainframe. He manoeuvred with difficulty around all the things in the large compartment. It was one of those moments when the fight with the cyborg came back to him and his subconscious rubbed all the mistakes he had made in his face. Of course it used Illumi’s voice to do that, or worse, Father’s. Killua gritted his teeth.

At last he found a panel with the network slot and pulled out one of the drives they had with a copy of Nanika. He had not connected her directly to his neural network before to give her more complicated orders and felt slightly apprehensive about it. He knew Alluka must have put in all the security software that prevented the AI from invading his own network, and he had installed tons of firewalls years ago, when he started his illegal hobby. Still, so far he had only used her to extract information from servers and drives, which being her primary function required no instructions on his part. 

He attached a forked cable to himself and the drive. 

 

_ Hi, Killua. _   A cute voice said in his head.

 

_ Hi, Nanika,  _ he replied. _ We’ll be hacking a big robot now. Are you ready? _

 

_ Aye _ , she answered. 

 

He could see on his internal interface how she readied herself, starting up invasive protocols. 

 

_ We have to become friends with the robot, Nanika. It has to be functional after the hack and ready to listen to your command. _

 

_ Aye. _

 

_ I’m connecting you.  _

 

He plugged the last end of the wire into the constructor, while disconnecting himself and waited. Nanika’s protocols started to run, a small diode on her drive signalled that, and in under a minute she could access the robot’s operating system. He connected to Nanika again and asked her to trick the robot to think that it has to go to the nearest factory for maintenance and that it cannot put anything in or take anything out of its compartment. She did just that and they were ready. 

Gon climbed in and soon their own, much smaller robots followed, settling among the stuff in the large compartment. Gon moved closer to embrace Killua. Then he strapped them both with ropes to a railing that separated some building materials.

 

_ Okay, final thing Nanika. Now you have to convince it that there are no humans nearby and that it can move. _

 

Once he gave her that command he stuck her drive to the wall of the compartment and made sure the cable was securely plugged in, so it would not slip out during their journey. He left the piloting in Nanika’s hands.   

The giant constructor started walking. Sitting inside it felt like flying in an aircar during turbulence and Killua was not a fan, cursing his impaired mobility. But Gon held him tight. 

Killua tried to relax in the strong arms, breathing in Gon’s scent. It was hard though. He had talked a big game, but it all hinged on him successfully building a functioning leg, something he had never done in his life. He had had some experience with robotics but that had never been his primary discipline. 

When I fail Gon will realise how full of shit I am, he panicked in his head. And then he’ll just escort me up and never speak to me again. 

“What did you find in Ging’s stash?” Killua asked to distract himself.

“Some food, weapons and ammo, and some drives. I’m slowly looking through them. Will do more of that while you work on the leg. So far I found some maps and very old logs, but I’ve only scratched the surface. The most promising thing I’ve found is an indication of a receiver server.”

“Ging’s personal?” 

“Yeah, one where he regularly sends updates, or at least used to when he established this stash. I’m not sure if it’s one of the drives I picked up or if it’s somewhere else.”

“It’d be a breakthrough if we found it.”

“Yeah, it could hold his current location.” Gon’s eyes were shining, they looked like gold caught in sunlight. Even in the clinical fluorescent light typical for the pillars Gon looked warm and welcoming. 

Killua nuzzled closer to savour the closeness despite the rockiness of their ride.

 

*

 

Factories on the platforms could not compare to the one where the constructor took them. It spanned the diameter of a whole pillar if not two connected ones and was several levels deep. Thousands of robots were produced or repaired there at the same time. Some also stood in long rows, undoubtedly waiting for a signal to start working. Several parts of the facility were dedicated to manufacturing building materials. Despite the overwhelming size everything worked like clockwork. Assembly lines moved as if a complex dance was taking place, mechanical arms lifting and falling in unison. An impression greatly deepened by the rhythmic sounds coming from all directions. Sliding of slabs of metal mixed with sighs of pistons moving as a constant beat, while clicks and screeches added a more chaotic melodic line.  

They got out of the constructor and started walking around. Killua was looking for a line that produced the smaller robots. It took them a few hours before they found one that looked promising. 

Gon helped him build an interface and Killua got to work. He stopped the manufacturing line and uploaded the schematics of a mechanical leg. He also uploaded Nanika into the production line’s main computer, so she could observe the process and assist him. Especially later, when he was going to be lying on the assembly line. 

The factory settings needed a lot of adjusting and he spent over a whole cycle just doing that and then double and triple checking. He wanted to get it right the first time, because he knew he would have to get high on painkillers to survive the attachment process. 

Finally he lay naked on the production line. Gon was sitting by his head and holding his hand. He was also running his fingers through Killua’s hair. Killua regretted that his first fully naked moment with Gon, after they became a couple, was about him getting taken apart and put back together again. A spectacle of blood and flesh and bone fragments awaited Gon if he cared to look. While Killua’s position prevented him from seeing anything that was not directly above him. The heights of how unsexy this all was made Killua cringe. A part of him wished Gon had just kept looking through the drives somewhere in the corner, then again not being left alone with this made Killua endlessly thankful. 

The components for the new leg had been printed and now the robot arms above him held them. The assembly machine looked like some giant insect from this perspective. Especially now that the painkillers were kicking in and Killua’s mind was drifting slowly into disarray. The movement of the machine, its sounds felt alive, like it had a mind and a will of its own. Fear was rising in Killua as the appendages bent and leaned in. He wanted to scream, to roll off the hard metal counter he was lying on, but he could not control any of his muscles. He thought he could hear Gon’s voice but the uncanny chirping of the machine drowned that out. If Gon was still holding him he could not be sure anymore. But he was acutely aware of the inhuman appendages touching his stump. He tried to reach and push the machine away, but his arms would not lift even a centimetre. When flight and fight failed him, he froze. 

 

*

 

When Killua woke up he found himself wrapped in a blanket. Gon had also dressed him in underwear, but for some reason decided that the machine was a better spot to let Killua rest than the floor. Killua questioned that choice. The now dormant appendages loomed over him, still too sentient looking for his taste. The panic from before resurfaced. 

Killua rolled, but Gon's arm gently returned him to a position on his back. Killua then realised he was actually in Gon's lap, while his boyfriend was leaning back. 

“You're awake,” Gon said with far more enthusiasm than Killua felt was warranted. “How are you feeling?”

Killua snorted and turned to look at Gon, who bent towards him to make that easier. 

“Sore and aching,” Killua said once he started to examine his condition. He exaggerated a bit, maybe to get some sympathy. It did win him a soothing pet. Or he just voiced his concern, that once he moved it was going to get much worse. 

Maybe he was being childish, though. All system checks from his neural network cleared and it seemed that the new limb had been seamlessly accepted as a replacement for the lost one. He pulled off the blanket and sat up. Gon pressed himself to his back and wrapped his arms around Killua's waist, his chin landed on Killua's shoulder. It was hard to say if he did that out of fear that Killua could fall off the metal counter or just out of affection. Killua leaned on him and got a quick kiss on the shoulder for it. 

He focused back on his leg. It did not fill him with enthusiasm, as it looked hideous. It neither was a faithful imitation of a real leg, nor was it an artistic rendering. Just a crude thing that very much belonged on a constructor and made Killua feel like one of those creepy cyborgs that had attacked them. His face twisted in a grimace and he was glad that Gon could not see it, for he would undoubtedly worry. 

Killua stretched the foot forward and backward then wiggled the tiny metal toes. The mechanism responded to his  commands.

“It works!” Gon squeezed Killua out of joy.  

“So it seems,” Killua said and pulled the knee towards his chin. That generated a strange feeling in his pelvis and hip. It was not exactly pain or discomfort, it just felt different than before, but Killua was sure he could learn to tune it out. “I’ll stand up now.” 

Gon released him from the embrace, but wrapped his arm around Killua’s just in case. He was being so protective it was frankly embarrassing, yet Killua could not get mad at him. 

“I can do it, dummy,” he blurted.

“Yeah, but this way I get to touch you.”

Killua rolled his eyes and slipped off the machine. The concrete floor was cold but it felt odd to get this info only from one leg. The mechanical one detected contact, Killua knew he was standing on it and putting pressure on it, and that the surface was even, but there was no information about the texture or temperature. Gon got off too and they started walking, with their elbows locked. Like a stupid cheesy couple in a park they strolled between the storey high machines or below arches made of robotic arms as the enormous constructors paused to let them pass like polite pedestrians.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably the cheesiest fic I've ever written.. 
> 
> thank you to everyone who's reading and commenting <3


	17. Chapter 16: Level -1040

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Consequences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> three stars (***) mean a time jump. there is one flashback in this chapter.

* * *

Little things. Tiny details seemed off. He started to hear things. Or more exactly, people. Other people than Killua, the only person he had any certainty was actually there. It did not stop with the sounds, because next came seeing the networks. Noticing hidden servers and routers. Connecting to the portable drives they carried with them when he was not paying attention. He did not want to alarm Killua, who was experiencing his own issues with the leg and with their surroundings. 

Gon needed to shield him from the mistake he had made. From the panic and folly that pushed him. 

 

***

 

When Killua was recovering from the amputation Gon could not find a place for himself. It felt like his fault, the whole situation. That Killua, his Killua, the person most precious to him was in pain and lying in some makeshift pallet. Bundled in ancient rags. Cuddling to him, inhaling his scent, was too reminiscent of a reward. Gon did not deserve that. He fucked up, he should have never agreed to this venture together in the first place. Now only one objective remained. Killua had to survive so that Gon had something to come back to.  

Contradictory feelings tugged at him from within. One implored to bring Killua back up, to make sure he was safe up on the platforms. Another told him how patronizing a desire it was, how disrespectful of Killua's wishes. And dismissive of his ability. Killua had a plan and Gon owed it to him to consider it at least. 

That had to wait till Killua was lucid though, and restlessness was driving Gon insane. There was a thing he could do though, something to move their journey along in this forced downtime. He knew where Ging's stash was. He could go there and retrieve valuables, if any could be could. He could leave sleeping Killua protected by two robots and take one to the level below. It seemed like a perfect solution to all his problems. 

What he did not predict was the encryption on Ging's stash. None of the passwords Kite had passed onto him worked. The thing would not open whatever Gon threw at it, even the genetic material reader would not budge. Blowing the door up crossed Gon's mind but the risk of compromising everything inside was too high. 

He came back defeated to their temporary camp in the fancy spire. He slept snuggled up to Killua, claiming an unearned reward for a double failure. 

Then he remembered. Nanika,  the military grade AI they carried around to shield them when checking up networks in the pillars. Gon had seen Killua connect her many times, he could do it himself he wagered. 

Once he got to the stash it proved less straightforward than he had anticipated. He connected Nanika's drive and it did nothing. The door to the stash did not slide open. He took the other part of the forked cable and attached it to his own neural network. 

She spoke instantly. 

 

_ Who are you? _

 

_ Gon. _

 

_ Killua's friend? _

 

_ Yes. _

 

_ Yay. _

 

_ Why didn't you open the door? _

 

_ Door? _

 

_ Right now, I connected you to an interface, a door interface and you did nothing. _

 

_ It's not a server or router, data extraction impossible. _

 

_ Yeah, it isn't any of those. It's a door that we need open. _

 

_ Do you want me to initiate system takeover protocols? _

 

He answered after a moment of thought. 

 

_ Yes. _

 

_ Aye _ , she said.

 

Gon saw lines of code display in his peripheral vision. 

He waited maybe twenty minutes. 

Her sweet voice broke the silence. 

 

_ System takeover finished.  _

 

_ Disable all traps and security protocols and open the door. _

 

_ Aye. _

 

***

 

He had retrieved a server from there that Ging updated regularly. It gave him a clear route to follow, once they were ready to leave the constructor factory. After the cyborg attack that was the news they both needed. And they both celebrated.

If only the win was not tainted by consequences. 

When he analysed the situation, and he did that a lot while walking, he remembered that Killua had connected to Nanika only to tell her to pilot the constructor and for very short periods at any given time. When she was retrieving information for them he remained disconnected, left her alone to it, because she automatically uploaded what she found to a shared portale server network in their robots.  

Gon now understood that there was a hidden danger to using Nanika, something Killua had not warned him about, because he had always been there to supervise her. It had never been Gon’s responsibility. Nor had Gon ever cared to ask for details. It seemed rather obvious: plug her in, she will do what is needed. 

Now his perception was skewed, his neural network was reacting to all electromagnetic signals. His movements also did not entirely belong to him. She sometimes wanted to stop and listen to some data sent along the wireless networks. So his steps slowed down, and he drifted to one side or the other, earning him concerned looks from Killua. He braced himself and pressed on, in those moments. He ran up to Killua and took his hand, hoping that it would make Nanika cooperate, as she seemed to love Killua a lot.  

 

*

 

“Gon!” 

He heard his name and turned. “Yes?”

“Gon, I called your name at least five times. Is your helmet broken?” 

They were talking through their com system exclusively nowadays. Toxic fumes comprised the air that low within the pillar, they could not do without filters in their helmets anymore, unless they found a pocket of plants that cleared the atmosphere. These were surprisingly more frequent than higher up the pillar, though still rather rare in general. They did not have plants with green leaves, more red or blue ones, as they absorbed the light from the UV lamps, not the sun.   

“No, it’s not.”

“Are you tired? Do we need to rest?” Killua asked, concerned. He also gently led Gon in the direction of their robots. Only then did Gon realise that he had been standing at the edge of a large hole that appeared to go down many levels as its bottom could not be seen. But wireless signal carried well from down there. 

“No, I was just curious how deep does it go.”

“Really? It didn’t look like you were looking down.”

“Well, I just got there.”

Killua whacked him over the head and the vibration resonated through his helmet. 

“Don’t lie to me, idiot. Especially if you’re not gonna put enough effort into it to pull it off. You’ve been weird ever since we left the factory twenty cycles ago. Is this about the leg? Are you having second thoughts about it?”

“No, I’m still in awe about the leg. It’s amazing.”

“Is that so?”

Gon remained silent and took a few breaths before he finally confessed. “Killua, I fucked up.” He could not keep it in any longer. She almost walked him into a mortal fall. He was putting himself in danger, which he did not care about that much, but Killua’s safety could not be compromised. If he continued like this he could get them both killed. 

“Is this about the cyborg attack? Are you blaming yourself for this?” 

“Yeah... that’s… I do actually, but that’s not what this is about.”

“Well, don’t blame yourself while we’re at it. But if not this then what?” 

“Nanika…” Gon whispered. 

“What did you do?!” 

“I just.. I wanted to open Ging’s stash. I couldn’t get it to open so I thought maybe she could help, like with the servers in the pillars.”

“Gon, you should have asked me!”

“Yeah, I know I shouldn’t have taken her without asking…”

“No! That’s not the point, I don’t care if you take my stuff. You can always take whatever you want. But Nanika, first of all she’s not stuff… she has her own will and she can be dangerous… she doesn’t mean it, but she doesn’t fully understand it.” 

“Yeah… I think she’s in my neural network.” 

“Oh, dark chasms… Gon.” Killua embraced him and locked him in a hug. He patted Gon on the back. “It’s going to be okay.” 

“Yeah, maybe…” Gon hugged him back. He did that to stop his hands from shaking. “I really fucked this up.”

“No shit,” Killua said with some bite. “You’ll need a full network reset when we get back, but for now let me talk to her. I think I can reason with her.”

Killua made them sit on a slab of concrete and connected his own suit to Gon’s.

 

_ Nanika. _ He wrote through the communicator.

 

_ Killua!  _ She sounded excited.

 

_ Yes. Nanika do you know you’re not on a drive? _

 

_ No. Isn’t this a drive? I see an architecture here and programs, and data. _

 

_ It’s a neural network, Nanika, not a simple inorganic drive. Gon’s neural network. This means you’re a guest. _

 

_ A guest? What does that mean? _

 

_ It means that the network belongs to Gon, and you have to ask Gon before you do something, otherwise you’ll put yourself and him in danger. And I don’t want anything bad to happen to either of you. _

 

_ Killua likes Gon. _

 

_ Yes, and I like you too. Do you understand? _

 

_ Aye. _

 

_ You won’t make Gon walk, without asking him first, right? _

 

_ Aye. _

 

Killua disconnected.

“Do you think this will be enough?”

“I hope it will be. But you need to talk to her, set more boundaries yourself. And next time talk to me please.”

“I didn’t want to worry you.”

“Gon, this place is driving me crazy. Half the time I’m sure we’re lost or this is a dream and nothing here is real. When you wander off dead eyed, it just feeds into that.” Killua’s voice shook as he spoke. “I’m sorry… I shouldn’t put this on you… But I need to know you’re real and still here with me.”

“I am. And I promise, I won’t hide anything anymore. But this goes both ways. You need to talk to me about your fears, all of this what you told me right now. I wish you had told me sooner.” 

“Yeah…” Killua cuddled up to Gon. “We’re both pretty bad at this.”

Gon giggled. “That’s okay, it just shows we’re made for each other.”

“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Killuaaa!! But it makes total sense.”

“Idiot.”

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this makes sense and the techno babel is not too obnoxious.  
> Also I keep making mistakes in the titles... having chapter titles may have been a mistake XD
> 
> thank you to everyone who's reading and commenting <3


	18. Chapter 17: Level -1802

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A trek in the forest.

* * *

Humidity did not agree with his mechanical leg. Muggy atmosphere had not crossed his mind when he was considering possible issues he might encounter with his new limb. Thus far the pillars had been mostly dry and barren. Then suddenly  seventeen hundred levels  deep plants were growing frequently, clearing some of the air and water. Among the foliage creatures roamed. Animals, but unlike anything Killua had ever seen. They all resembled insects, or more precisely strange hybrids of insects with other kinds of animals. They mostly ignored the two humans crossing their lush territories, though a few tried to hunt them when they stopped to rest. Their robots thwarted these attempts easily, because the creatures did not pay any attention to the machines. 

Killua’s suit struggled to keep his temperature steady, and he was sweating when it failed. That in turn led to discomfort where his new leg connected to his skin. He slowed down, limped and cursed into his helmet, but kept the audio communication channel off. 

Gon still knew. He did not mind as he was in no hurry. He was actually silently trying to help Killua out. He kept the pace casual and explored their surroundings. He stopped by the plants or creatures if they let him approach and examined them. Sometimes on his own, but other times clearly upon Nanika’s request. 

Even though she did not lead Gon into direct danger anymore, her presence inside Gon’s neural network filled Killua with unease. Killua was angry with himself that he had not trained Gon in how to interact with her properly. He had never enquired if Gon had any firewalls, neither had he just explained what danger she posed. A full reset. Gon was going to need a full shutdown and restart of his network, but they needed a specialist and a controlled environment for that. Still there was going to be a huge risk connected to it, because a reset could end with neurological damage. They were both in for major medical procedures when they came back… if they came back. He was not sure if it was possible for them to go back. The platforms had long ago stopped feeling real. Not that the bizarre jungle they were trekking through felt any more real than the distant home they had left months ago. Reality seemed like a luxury Killua could not afford at the moment. His brain was whispering all kinds of nonsense leading him astray. This made him thankful for the leg pain, because that was at least not imaginary. And Gon. Gon felt solid, Gon's touch even through a layer of protective clothing grounded Killua. Yeah, these two things were undoubtedly real. The rest did not matter. 

 

*

 

The indoor forest had other inhabitants than just some simple creatures. They found signs of encampments and even primitive houses. 

“This was not set up by archaeologists,” Gon said after they examined another one in a clearing by a column supporting the level ceiling. 

“Yeah, the tools don't look machine-manufactured, rather handmade from the stuff found in the pillars.” Killua poked a knife, or more accurately a shiv made from a manually sharpened piece of metal that pillar walls were often built of. 

“And they were eating these things.” Gon made a sweeping motion indicating the critters that foraged nearby. With a stick he stirred the ashes in a long put out campfire, that brought chitine legs and shells to the surface. 

“Though, you know. Maybe it's someone who lost all of their equipment and is desperate enough to do this to survive.”  Killua said, as a strange thought entered his mind. “Maybe it's Ging and this other guy, Pariston. You told me that in one of his logs Ging described a place like this.”

Gon's forehead wrinkled. The forest on the level was so dense and vibrant that the air quality allowed them to walk with the helmet glass up, a rare instance when they could actually see half each other’s faces - their safety software still recommended breathing filters. Killua blushed at the memory of how much they revelled in this, staring at one another for a good ten minutes after daring to remove the filters to steal a quick kiss. 

“It looks like there were more people here than just two. Besides these camps do not look like they are following a pattern. Even desperate Ging would be going up, not meader here aimlessly.”

Provided he's sane, Killua thought but did not dare say. 

“No, I think it's something else,” Gon surmised. 

“But not cyborgs? Right?”

“No, they only eat protein solutions, made of their liquefied victims.”

Killua felt sick to his stomach, but also thankful that Gon had not shared this titbit before they fought the creatures, the horror of them had already been high. 

“Besides they don't dwell in groups. Perhaps... No, that's stupid.”

Gon's face grew dark. He shook his head and got up. 

“Come on, let's go.”

“Gon, you were saying something.”

“Never mind, it was stupid. There is no point speculating. Whatever is out there, it clearly can be armed, and we have no idea what its attitude could be, so avoiding it is our best option.”

“I guess,” Killua conceded, but something about Gon's tone unsettled him. He decided to wait until Gon calmed down to press him on the matter. 

 

*

 

As cycles passed and strange forests kept overgrowing the levels they needed to cross, Gon showed no hint of calming down. While he tried to appear chill on the surface, he was constantly on edge. During their breaks he remained vigilant and restless. So much so that Killua ordered that they would sleep in turns. Otherwise Gon failed to get any shut-eye. 

They encountered more abandoned campsites. 

Killua tried to broach the subject several times, but Gon just said that he did not like the place and wanted to get through it as fast as possible. 

It was hard to argue with that. The place was uncanny with its plants that looked sort of like the ones on the platforms, but not quite right. Or the strange chirps and calls of critters who had too many limbs to feel familiar. 

Still Killua wanted to throw it in Gon's face that he wasn't communicating, like they had agreed they would. Just that stressing Gon out more than he already was would not help anything. 

“I hate that we have to follow the paths,” Gon remarked when he was sending out drones to spy ahead. That did not help much, because the machines could not fly among the branches, and they could see little through the canopy when they patrolled above. “It feels like we’re going straight where they want us.” 

“Or we’re just using the easiest route, like they do, whoever they are.” Killua did not want to indulge Gon’s paranoia, especially that he could not figure out what it was about. His own mind had been feeding him all kinds of reasons to dread everything, and he needed to remain the focused and level-headed one, since Gon was slowly losing it.

The drones flew off just like that, at the beckoning of Gon’s hand. Killua cringed. Normally they had to program them through their interface, but Nanika in Gon’s network allowed him to control them remotely. 

“Yeah.”

The dismissiveness irked Killua even more than the drone thing, so he just pressed on.

“Wait for the drones!” 

“Like they’ll be able to see something. It’s a waste of time. My leg is killing me in this microclimate. I want to get out of here.”

“Fine.” Gon trotted behind him, but did not call the drones back.

He can probably see the feed directly with Nanika’s help, Killua thought, annoyed, and he’s not even telling me this, jerk. 

He picked up the pace despite the discomfort from his leg. 

He was almost running when he found himself in a clearing. One where some people, for lack of a better word, were camping and from how it smelt, cooking some bugs. Killua froze in place, but he could not turn back, all five pairs of eyes were dead set on him. Gon caught up with him in a few seconds and he stopped as well. They were eyeing each other, him and Gon versus the odd assembly of creatures before them. 

A tent was set up in the clearing and underneath it sat a green person, muscled, with a bald head, and a long thick tail. It wrapped around someone who looked like an actual human woman with bushy almost white hair and brows. She, presumably, even had a breathing apparatus covering her mouth - like a human would in this atmosphere. She appeared completely unbothered by the green tail around her waist, to the contrary, she was gently stroking it with obvious affection. By the fire there were two other creatures. A larger one, burgundy in colour was sitting and preparing some bugs to be roasted over the flames, while a much smaller one, that vaguely resembles a cat but in some clothing and with unsettling insect hands was tending to the fire and the things already cooking there. Then at the far side of the clearing, perched on some mossy steel beam sat a tall lanky creature, with large butterfly wings and a creepy insectoid face.. 

“Pouf, are these the people you saw around the forest?” the green one asked.

“Yes, my lord,” the winged one answered. 

“So we finally meet. Few up-people make it here.” 

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another cliff hanger, sort off. 
> 
> I hope you're still enjoying this story.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who's reading and commenting <3


	19. Chapter 18: Level -1830

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meeting old nightmares.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to [sub_divided](https://subdee.tumblr.com/) for helping me rewrite the last chapters and put more of a punch into them. <3

* * *

“It’s you,” Gon seethed, pointing in the direction of the campfire before Killua could answer the green creature. 

“Me?”  Both the huge red creature and the small cat-like one answered in unison.

“You!” Gon’s voice sounded unhinged, desperate. “You attacked Kite! You lured him away from our team and attacked him!” The sentences were punctuated with sobs. 

Killua turned to him and tried to take hold of his hand, but Gon did not let him. He moved forward, threatening, powerful. “You ripped my arm off, when I tried to defend him!” He was shaking all over. “I thought he was dead! He was bleeding from his head! I was only eleven. You attacked him, and me!” He repeated the accusation, taking one more step forward, and the burgundy creature stood up. Gon was not looking at it.

“Gon,” Killua whispered quietly, trying again to touch his boyfriend, to comfort him. He managed to put his hand on Gon’s arm, but that yielded no reaction. He could just feel the vibrations of Gon’s body. His boyfriend paid him no attention.

“I was so scared and you just smiled!” 

“I don’t remember doing anything like that. Pouf, did I do something like this?” The burgundy one was pondering out loud, while looking at the creature perched on the beam. 

“You didn’t, Youpie.”

“But you have both arms,” the cat-like one pointed out. They turned their head to the side, their slit pupils dilating to fill the whole irises and whites, giving them a goofy look which would have made Killua snicker under less dire circumstances. 

“And you don’t smell like a half robot monster. If anything the other one does smell a bit like a half robot.” The cat one made sniffing sounds and pointedly looked at Killua. “Though not of rot like the typical half robots, you smell alive, like a person.”  

“Don’t change the subject!” Gon was not having any of this. “Why did you attack us?! We were just looking for artifacts, I was just a kid!” He was not listening to them, even though he seemed to demand answers from the creature. Their explanations were irrelevant, Killua realised. At least in this moment they did not matter to Gon, he just had to keep going, letting it all out. Pent up fears and resentment that suddenly made sense to him after all this time. “I had nightmares, all my childhood. And later on too… I’ve always been wary of cats and I thought it was completely irrational, because I couldn’t even recall what you looked like… but seeing you now I remember it all. How can you explain attacking people like this?! How?!” There were tears coming down Gon’s face. “I thought Kite was dead, I thought he was dead… I couldn’t do anything, because I was weak and small… too slow, too weak” He repeated it over and over again. Then he moved suddenly towards the campfire brandishing the laser knife. He leaped towards the cat-like creature and they jumped away, faster than any human could. 

Gon lost his balance when his attack missed and that gave Killua the time to get between him and the creature.

“Gon! Stop!” He grabbed Gon’s shoulders. “They’re not attacking us! Whatever happened, it was years ago. I know you’re still hurting because of it, but you need to stop. Please.”

“I thought Kite was dead. I was too weak, but now... now...” Gon reached towards his right arm, just above the elbow. He squeezed that spot. “My arm was gone.” 

“I know. I’m sorry.” Killua whispered and embraced him, pulled him closer. Gon let him, he deflated into Killua’s arms. Something about Gon felt weak and defeated. Tears were flowing down his cheeks, pooling in his helmet. He strained to breath. He mumbled some more and fainted. Killua gently placed him on the ground. 

“Are they dead?” the one called Youpie asked.

“Of course not.” The one named Pouf snorted. “Now, could you please take this screaming thing away? We live here and we were planning to have a meal, before you barged in.” The creature addressed Killua. 

“No,” the green one ordered. “I’d like to get to the bottom of this. When they wake up we will talk again.” 

 

*

 

Killua put Gon on the soft grass by a tree. He sat down next to him. He placed Gon's head in his lap and gently stroked his shoulder. The creatures proceeded with their meal mostly ignoring them, though they did introduce themselves and Killua did the same. 

Gon was not waking up, he was sleeping and dreaming. Whatever he was dreaming about, it made him restless. Killua embraced him soothingly. 

“Why are you here?” Meruem came up and sat in front of Killua. Komugi came as well, holding Meruem's hand, the creature gently guided her to the grass. 

Initially Killua thought that she was a pet, only superficially resembling a human, because she did not say a word before Gon had lost his consciousness. Then he observed that she actually did talk, though not really to Pouf, who ostensibly ignored her. The other thing Killua noticed was that she could not see, when the food was being served Meruem patiently waited until she grabbed her bug meat and plants on a stick. She moved around using a cane or by holding someone's hand or tail. Usually Meruem's or Pitou's. While the other creatures were definitely humanoid, they had so many insect or animal features they could not imitate a human successfully, Komugi on the other hand looked distinctly like a human woman. 

“Gon's looking for his father,” Killua answered looking at Meruem. “And I'm helping him out.”

“Here? We haven't had up-people in many sheddings.”

Killua was only guessing what a shedding was, but he suspected it did not happen too frequently. 

“His father's logs indicate he was going down, to the ground level, if such a thing really exists. According to the receiver we have we are close to him. Maybe a few hundred levels.”

“There is something awful below, it’s a bad idea to go there,” Meruem said. 

“What do you mean? Are there monsters down there?”

“Maybe, who knows? There is something that calls the big robots, the ones that build things.” 

“Calls them for what?”

“I’m not exactly sure, but when they come back, they don’t build things well. Their work is flawed and dangerous. We moved here from other pillars far away, because these around here are the only ones safe in my opinion. The tainted robots don’t build here.”

“Whatever reprograms them protects itself,” Killua said.

“Yes.” 

“I think Gon will still want to go.” 

Meruem just nodded.

Killua’s thoughts were racing, whatever was below them, it was probably responsible for the tilted platform. And from what Meruem was saying more catastrophes like that one were bound to happen. He had to go down there and stop this, he had to protect his sister, his home, if he ever hoped to get back up and have a life with Gon. Their quest had to change, Killua thought. 

 

*

 

After they talked to Killua, Meruem and their companions moved away to spend time together. They played games and talked, while Killua waited for Gon to come to. He was glad they were given some space, because he hoped he would be able to reason with Gon once he woke up. 

All the scary stories from Killua’s childhood came true in the pillars. All the thoughts that used to invade his head when he was alone in the rifts. The question of how deep the pillars went and what was inside them. Now he knew the answers and they did not bring him solace. Too deep, and filled with nothing but strange creatures. Being here did not feel real. Sitting under a tree that should not be able to grow indoors to the size it was, looking at odd hybrids which could talk, and said disturbingly reasonable things, Killua could feel his mind try to grab onto the vestige of sanity. Meruem’s warning about the constructors and something controlling them brought clarity to Killua’s thoughts that he had not experienced in countless hours. Even if he and Gon were hopelessly lost, even if finding Ging was not meant to be, they had an attainable goal before them. Something to make the journey worthwhile.

Gon stirred in his lap, then his breathing became uneven and he opened his eyes.

“Killua,” he whispered. “I had a nightmare.” He reached up to touch Killua’s helmet. “I dreamt I met… the person who ripped off my arm, when I was a kid. But they looked like a cat… I’ve had dreams like this for years after the incident, though not recently. Therapy helped with that...  It’s silly. Why would they be a cat?”

“Kite did not tell you what they looked like?” Killua asked. He wanted to understand better before he made Gon face the reality. He reached for Gon’s hand and held it tightly.  

“Kite did not see them. He followed a sound, and they attacked him from behind. I heard him scream and found him bleeding. The wound was so large, he wasn’t moving, I was certain he was dead. And then the attacker appeared and I was so angry, so very angry… I’m not sure exactly what happened, the next thing I remember clearly was our team finding us, I was in so much pain and my arm was gone. I should have told you this story earlier…”

“It’s okay Gon.”

“No, I should have, I really should have, because it makes us less safe. I thought that I had worked through it, as a teen, with the doctor. But it came back to me. In the pillar, this place, it brought it all back. In a dream so far, but what if… what if I see something and react without thinking…”

“Gon, you already did.”

“What do you mean?”

“You already did, it wasn’t a dream.” Killua was stroking Gon’s forearm. “We met your attacker, I think, you identified them.”

“No… but it wasn’t… it wasn’t a sort of a cat thing, right? I mean hybrids are a myth to scare rookie archeologists.”

“I don’t think they are Gon.” 

Gon said nothing his eyes were wide and tears began to flow down his cheeks.

Killua bent and encased Gon in an embrace. “It’ll be okay, we’ll talk to them, this time without the knife. You’ll finally... finally you’ll be able to put this behind you for real.” 

 

*

 Killua rocked Gon in his arms for a good half hour before he was ready to get up and talk to Pitou. His behaviour seemed stable enough, but Killua tentatively followed him anyway. He held back though, wishing to give Gon some privacy, he just wanted to make sure no more incidents happened. Killua leaned on a tree while Gon sat next to Pitou in a clearing.

“Do you really not remember me?” Gon asked, straight to the point.

“No, I’m Pitou.”

“Killua told me, my name’s Gon.” 

“Hahaha, same. He told us your name too.” They were amused.

Gon much less so. “If you don’t remember me, you probably don’t know why you attacked Kite, or me.” 

“I fought with up-people when we went up this one time, many sheddings ago. Down here there aren’t many up-people, if anything the half robots come, they are harder to kill than your kind.”

“Why did you go up?”

“Hmmm, I think we wanted to see what’s up there, and Meruem thought there might be better living up there. But the air there is not good for us, many of us didn’t make it back down.”

“So it’s like here for us.”

“More or less, I think.” Pitou pondered the issue.

“Why did you fight with people up there?”

“Various reasons, some wanted to catch us, many of us were caught and taken away. Also because of food, and to protect Komugi.”

“Komugi?”

Pitou indicated the fair-haired woman.  

“Komugi’s up-people. But she was left in the pillars, because the up-people didn’t want her.” Pitou paused. “Komugi, why didn’t the up-people want you?” 

“Hmm, it was so long ago,” the woman said, after she got over being startled from her board game by Pitou's shout. “My family was very big and poor, and we lived in the pillars. When my neural network implants didn’t take and made me blind my family didn’t have the money to have it repaired. They treated me like a burden for a few years until they finally left me in the pillar one day.” 

The story shook Killua, how needlessly cruel the family was. They could have left her on the platform and someone would have taken interest, the authorities or some charity. But they abandoned her in the pillar to die slowly, instead. He shivered, because it reminded him of Alluka. His family wanted to abandon her too, they saw her being trans as a failure. A glitch in their perfect system, if she was meant to be a girl why was she not born one? How could they have produced an offspring that needed corrections? 

“Yeah, we found her and took her with us, she’s nice and Meruem likes playing games with her,” Pitou concluded.

“So you thought that Kite wanted to kidnap one of you or take your food?”

“Most likely.”

Gon dropped onto his back and burst into laughter. “This simple,” he said in between the spasms. “It’s so completely rational and simple. All my childhood I could not understand, and there was nothing to understand.” He kept laughing. 

Killua went to him and sat down on the grass beside Gon’s head.

Pitou came closer too, they leaned over Gon, analysing him, confused by his amusement. 

“Up-people are strange,” they said.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who's reading, leaving kudos and commenting <3


	20. Chapter 19: Level -1999

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where they find what they were looking for and how that only brings confusion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Body horror and cyber horror warning.   
> So this chapter was fun to write XD It also contains suspiciously little fluff.

* * *

The forest accompanied them for several more levels down, then it gave way to more typical pillar fare, empty spaces or abandoned neighbourhoods. One odd feature that they had not encountered above were constructor robots present more and more frequently the deeper they went. It would have made sense for them to be this deep in such numbers if they were all working on something. That was not the case, however; almost all the robots were just lingering there, motionless, dormant. They did not look broken or decommissioned, and Gon believed that faulty robots would have been taken to the factory by their functioning brethren. Constructors’ programming did not allow for wastefulness. 

This confirmed the information they got from the hybrids. Something below summoned the robots and endangered the integrity of the pillars. 

Gon agreed with Killua’s assessment, they had to put a pin in the search for Ging and try to at least find out who or what was behind this. The optimal course of action was dealing with the threat themselves, but not knowing what they were walking into meant they might not be able to do more than scout the problem and gather information, so that they could call for help later. Everyone’s safety hinged on them succeeding.

Nanika was restless. He could see her processes running constantly in the background. 

 

_ What’s going on Nanika? _ He asked her.

 

_ The network here is unsafe. All is unsafe. _

 

_ Unsafe?  _

 

_ Yes, it’s constantly talking to all the robots here. Our robots are in danger, we are in danger too, because this is a computer. _

__

This, she meant his neural network.

_ What can we do? _

 

_ I’m working, working all the time, protecting you and the robots, Killua has very strong firewalls. We are fine now, but the danger is out there. It’s all around, it’s trying to reach us. _

__

_ Thank you for protecting us. _

 

_ I love Killua, and I love Gon. _

 

She sounded like a child, it always threw Gon off.

 

_ I love you too. _

__

“Nanika says there is some aggressive network down here.”

“I know, my firewalls are on highest alert. When we find this network’s main server we’ll find the culprit, I’m sure.”

“I agree.” 

 

*

 

The architecture stopped making sense. Corridors changed dimensions and shape at random, went from very wide to inconveniently narrow in a matter of metres without any apparent reason. If they got to a neighbourhood it looked distorted. Windows and doors were applied at random. Walls and roofs connected at strange angles, creating disturbing structures. The materials also changed haphazardly, brick crudely transitioned to metal, or synthetics, or concrete or rock. It was aesthetically jarring, looked like scenery from a nightmare. They never ventured inside these structures, unsure of their durability. It felt safer to look for corridors and rest there. 

As strange as it seemed, they were actually following a trail. While the network was scattered and its origins hard to pinpoint, there were clear remnants of someone traversing these corridors long before them. Not in ancient times, maybe ten to twenty years earlier. They found discarded batteries, filters and empty food containers.     

Toxicity this deep down reached levels Gon had never seen before. He thanked his suit every cycle, because he knew he would have been dead if he had taken the typical gear sold to archaeologists. He admired the skill and precision Alluka, Canary and Killua put into their gear. 

“The track splits,” Killua noted when they reached a forked tunnel. 

Gon analysed the drone footage he was receiving. “They doubled back. They went into this corridor then returned here. They shed a lot of gear there, it looks destroyed. Whatever is there completely fried their equipment.”

Killua went into the other tunnel. “This way then. According to our positioning equipment, the opposing way should be the outer wall of the pillar. They messed up, went outside at this depth.”

“Yeah, their filters and protections failed.” Gon followed his boyfriend into the corridor that lead towards the centre of the pillar. 

They found more and more discarded and broken stuff as they walked. Finally, after about a cycle, they reached a huge chamber. It had walls covered in psychedelic designs painted on what looked like wallpaper and a floor made of mismatched tiles. It was mostly empty and even their special shoes and stealthily built robots produced a slight echo. Gon was actually surprised it was not louder. He looked up, the ceiling was coiling with cables. He nudged Killua to look too.  

“Holy shit,” his boyfriend whispered through their audio communication link. He reached for Gon's hand, who gladly accepted the touch. 

The space filled him with dread, whatever they were looking for was probably where all the wires converged. The deeper they went the more unease Gon felt. 

After wandering for a long time, they spotted it . A large mass encased one of the columns, like a reverse cone, thicker the closer it got to the ceiling. It was not regular, though, more formless. 

When they approached it they could see it in all revolting detail, and Gon wished they could not. He felt his stomach turn and suppressed the need to heave, as he could not take off his helmet in the toxic atmosphere of the level. He could see Killua fight the same reaction of his body. 

The mass consisted of flesh, discoloured, stretched beyond the limitations of a human body. Limbs misshapen into a grotesque caricature of human form stuck out at odd angles. Bones did as well, sometimes muscles were attached to them, like meaty sails. Then there were organs which normally would be located on the inside, some pulsing with blood or some other viscous substance, which was dripping down the mass. Thousands of cables seemed to keep it all together, wrapped around the body parts or piercing through them, as if in mockery of a pulmonary system. 

Gon looked further up until he saw them, two heads with drooping skin and empty holes where eyes and mouth should have been. Yet something was observing them. Each head had a crown of cameras and other electronics, all directed at the two men who stood beneath. 

“What in the dark chasms is this?” Killua asked through their audio link.

“I have no idea. Do you think it makes sense to ask it?”

“I guess, it’s been probing us ever since we got near, it’s constantly pushing on my firewalls, trying to connect. Whatever this is, it must be the thing that’s been corrupting the constructors.” 

“Who or what are you?” Gon turned on his speaker and addressed the mass.

“We... I … we …” The sound came from some speakers located within the mass, though it did move its heads slightly, as if leaning closer. “I … we … I… I..” It could not decide on the pronoun. There seemed to be an internal battle going on. 

“Do you have a name? Or names?” Killua asked, cutting through the stuttering.

The answer was impossible to decipher, the word or words did not resemble anything, and when the thing repeated what could be its name, it sounded different each time.

“Can you spell that?” Gon asked to stop the noise. 

“Pariston.” 

“Ging.” 

Gon froze, this could not be true, he must have misheard. He shook his head and focused. It made too much sense not to be true. Two people seemed to form the mass. Ging went down with another guy, named Pariston. They wanted to reach the ground level which was bound to be extremely toxic and possibly radioactive. If they had stepped outside, as the trail of litter indicated, they would have been severely contaminated. The monstrosity before them, a grotesque being merged with the architecture and the network was a frighteningly reasonable conclusion, regardless how much Gon wished it otherwise. 

“Who are you?” the thing asked in return.

“Do we answer them?” Killua asked through the audio link.

“I’m not sure…” Gon still needed time to wrap his head around this.

“It’s your…” 

“Yeah, sort of…” Gon paused. “I need to think.”

“We’re going now,” Killua said and nonchalantly pulled Gon away. “Bye.” He waved at the mass. 

“Who are you?” It repeated a few times, but soon they were out of the range of its voice. 

 

*

 

They moved to a corridor just outside the chamber. Gon was pacing while Killua gave him space and just leaned on the wall.

“It’s my father... That thing is what’s left of him,” Gon finally said through the audio link.

“It seems that way.” Killua punctuated that with a nod. He kept his voice neutral, gauging the situation.

“What am I supposed to do with this information?” Gon felt a rush of emotions, most of which he could not name. Fear and disappointment mixed with relief and vindication surprisingly, although there were many more. A part of him felt he had achieved some sort of victory, everyone assumed Ging to be dead, while Gon had never given that much credence. Technically the mass proved him right, he had found his father. Or did he? It all lead to confusion and anxiety.

“I don’t know, Gon. The problem is that it’s not just him. There is this other guy there too.”

“True.” That complicated things. “I need to go back and talk to him.”

“You’ll be talking to them, not him.”

“I’ll address him. I’ll ask him what he thinks they are doing. I need to know if he even realises.” 

“It might be dangerous Gon, there are dormant constructors in that chamber.”

“Constructors don’t have weaponry.”

“The normal ones don’t, but who knows if these weren’t altered. Besides, a hit from a constructor arm can still break your ribs.” 

“Yeah, I know… still... Killua, I need to try!”

“Of course you do, I know you too well, idiot.” Killua was shaking his head. “Let's at least come up with a plan for how you can approach him without getting attacked, we need to be careful.”

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who's reading, leaving kudos and commenting! <3


	21. Chapter 20: Level -1999

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Planning and making decisions.

* * *

 

Seeing it again, Gon decided the thing was as repulsive as the first time. He could not believe that one of the heads hanging above him used to belong to his father. He had seen Ging only a few times in his life when he had been very little, so the face he recalled was one more from photos than real life. Regardless, the grotesque leathery masks that covered the heads did not resemble the images from his memories. Gon had no way of knowing which one was Ging’s.

“You’re back, but just one.” The thing spoke as he stopped before it. “Who are you?”

“I’m Gon Freecss.”

“Freecss... I... we… I... am Freecss.”

“Yes, you are Ging Freecss, my father.” 

“Father…” 

“Yes, mine.”

“Why are you here my … son?”

“I was looking for you, because you disappeared. Now I know why.”

“We came here, we were the first ones, the only ones.”

“Sure.” 

Who cares!? Gon thought, enraged, look what you’ve become! No one will know what you did, are you delusional? He wanted to scream, but he knew he had to keep his cool. 

“Why are you gathering the constructors?”

“To remake the world, to transform it, because I can.”

“You? Which one of you? Pariston?”

“Yes.”

“Do you agree with this father? When you tilted that platform, thousands of people died.” 

“Yes... No… N...Nooo... Yes… Yes..”

No one’s in control there, Gon realised. They just do chaotic stuff. Pariston clearly has a plan, but since Ging doesn’t support it he can’t execute it in full. What a mess. 

“I see, I’ll be going now.” He tried to be as smug as Killua.

“No..! You know… you talk of dead… you disapprove!”

“Does it matter what I think?”

Engaging, not running away, was a mistake. A cyber attack made Gon drop to the floor. His neural network was invaded and overwhelmed so he lost control of his body, falling on his face. For a second he blacked out. When he came round all his limbs were getting twisted at strange angles. He fought to keep them straight, not to end up with a dislocated joint. His body was becoming less and less biddable, it kept ignoring his will. He tried to crawl away, but he could only lie there, face down. 

 

_ Get up, run.  _

 

Nanika commanded and he could feel himself again. He scrambled off the vividly coloured tiles, their chaos contributing to his vertigo. He tripped and fell several times. His legs and arms hurt after the distortions forced on them by the attack. His muscles and joints not fully heeded his orders. 

 

_ Get away from them! They have a built-in strong emitter of their network. So many pings at once. I can hardly hold it off. _

__

He did not need a second warning. He stumbled away. Until he got at least thirty metres from the Ging-Pariston mass his steps were shaky. Then he just picked up speed and bolted towards where he remembered the exit was located. 

From the corner of his eye he noticed the constructors stirring, but they did not chase him. Even if they managed to stand up, they forcefully dropped to the floor soon after. 

 

*

 

“What happened?” Killua was waiting by the exit and ran deep into the chamber to intercept Gon. 

“Pariston attacked me, he's insane, he wants to destroy the pillars. Ging's sort of keeping him in check, but I'm not sure how consciously, besides, he's already failed once, so…”

Killua led him back into the corridor. 

“How did he attack you? I saw the robots moving.”

“He tried that too, but I think Ging stopped it, the constructors got conflicting orders. But when I was close he tried to remotely hack my neural network. Without Nanika I would've been toast.”

Killua hugged him. Their helmets bumped into each other, they made the logistics of the embrace tricky. 

“We need to shut this down,” Killua said. “I know it's your dad, but we need to put an end to this, we’re the only ones who can.”

“I know, and we will. I think we need to cut that thing down, but will that disconnect it from the net?” 

“Hopefully, I connected a drive with Nanika to the wires on the ceiling while you were distracting them, so she could do some careful reconnaissance.”

“I’m glad the plan worked, you always think ahead.” Gon felt some hope. With Killua it all felt more manageable. Together they were bound to figure it out. He worried about Killua's tone a bit, though. That was a consideration for later. 

They gave Nanika a few hours before they disconnected her and checked her analysis. 

 

_ The Pariston system controls a vast network. He is connected to many constructor robots. But he can't copy himself outside that one drive. It is odd, there are copy attempts all over his network, but they are all corrupted, incomplete and unusable.  _ She concluded.

“This makes sense,” Killua said. “He is a consciousness, bound by his biology. He can't exist outside his body, even a full body cyborg built on the platforms needs to have their original brain, or they just forget who they were. Scientists have been grappling with this problem for decades.” 

“And judging by the scope of his ambitions, this Pariston is very proud, he won't let himself forget who he is. He will only exist and destroy as himself.” Gon nodded. 

“We need to cut off their power, but first their network capabilities.”

“Yeah, or he’ll call upon the constructors and I have no idea if Ging can hold them in check.” Gon did not want to cut off their power, not entirely. He suspected that would end their lives. 

“I’ll ask Nanika to make a map of the cables, which are power and which are network.” 

“We’ll use airboards and laser knives, and cut them on two sides at the same time. Going in a circle.”

“I just worry the constructors will start reconnecting them.”

 “Damn, that’s a possibility. We can use our robots to do it faster...” Gon was pondering all the options. “Could you hack a constructor if it gets close to me, Nanika?” He asked finally.

 

_ Maybe, if you have some network enhancer. _

 

“You want her to hack on the fly? Without a stable connection?” Killua looked concerned.

“It’s a last resort sort of idea.”

“Yeah, I think we should be fast and fly as close as we can, so that the circle of cutting is not too wide.”

“I was thinking of just starting somewhere here by the door, but you’re right, we can’t count on stealth, we need to rely on speed. But there is also this short distance wireless network he has.”

“So not too close because of that, and not too far because the constructors might start mending what we cut… this will be hard.”

Gon nodded in agreement. “Yeah, a perfect thing for two idiots like us.”

“Indeed.” 

Gon could finally hear a smile in Killua’s voice. 

They made last preparations and got on their airboards. Killua's movements were not as graceful as usually, Gon saw his hesitation.

“Killua, I can do this alone. With the robots.”

Their units were already trotting on the ceiling between the cables.

“No you can't.”

“But the leg…”

“It's not perfect, but it will be enough. Trust me.”

“I do.” Gon took his hand. 

They held hands for a moment, hovering over the floor. They touched helmets. 

“It's time,” Killua said. He floated away. 

Gon almost let him go, but then pulled him back. 

“Killua, I must…”

“Must?”

“I must try, I must try to save him.”

“Your father?”

“Yes, that's why we can't cut all the power, because it'll probably kill them, I don't think that body can function without electricity.”

“Gon, he's dangerous, not your father, but this Pariston guy.”

“I know, but I must at least try.”

“How will you transport them back? Months of walking back up, how will you keep them alive? “

“We'll hack a constructor, it'll take us up much faster than walking.”

“Gon.”

“Nanika can do it.”

Silence filled their audio link. 

“Fine, I can't say I get it, but I’m not surprised. And it's your choice to make.”

 

*

 

They flew high, just below the ceiling, the helmet displayed the cables in two colours, based on Nanika's map, yellow for energy and purple for network. 

Gon was trying to look out for the constructors, but he could not help but glance at Killua. None of the effortlessness of his movements remained. He was clenching his fists and slouching a bit, as if pulling in on himself. The moment Killua veered away to start at an opposite end of the symbolic circle they agreed on, Gon started to sweat. The suit compensated, but he still could not fully concentrate on the task at hand. 

Killua on the other side was furiously slashing the cables. His arms moved really fast, even if he sometimes flew away from the ceiling due to an unfortunate leg movement. Lifeless cables started hanging around him like a fringe of worms. Their robots were also putting in the work.

Gon knew he needed to stop thinking and start cutting. He flew closer to the ceiling, but when he got there and turned, he saw it. Too late, though. The constructor, like a spider it resembled, was hanging upside down on the net of cables. It hit Gon with its arm and he flew back uncontrollably, until he hit something. 

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who's reading and commenting <3  
> Sorry for the cliffhanger. last chapter on Tuesday.


	22. Chapter 21: Level -1999

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> final battle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter. I hope you enjoyed reading this. I want to again thank my wonderful and super talented friend **[Joolita](https://twitter.com/joolita3)** , and my patient betas **[glittercracker](https://archiveofourown.org/users/glittercracker)** , **[kigamin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kigamin)** , **[jyuanka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jyuanka/pseuds/jyuanka)** and **[sub_divided](https://subdee.tumblr.com/)**. You made this possible <3

* * *

Killua could hear the constructors, the conflicting orders they were receiving made them move ever so slightly. Non stop, they jittered, shook, like a broken video. That produced a creepy insect-like noise. The helmet’s speaker was picking up on it, creating an irritating background track for their attack on the wires. The sooner they finished, the quicker he was going to be free of that scraping. 

A curtain of cables surrounded him already and he did not move more than a metre. There were so many they appeared insurmountable. The place where his right leg connected to his flesh hurt, it was not used to this position and movement. For the first time outside a very strong wind in the rifts the board underneath his feet felt unwieldy. The muscles in his left leg were protesting because they were forced to constantly compensate for the untrained mechanism. It was excruciating. He gritted his teeth and continued, until Gon’s marker on the screen in his helmet rapidly moved away from their mapped circle. It was followed by a constructor marker. 

Killua veered on instinct, before his consciousness registered what had happened. He was flying towards Gon who was lying on the floor while the constructor was almost upon him. Killua pulled out his gun and tried to stop the board, keep it steady to shoot. It was a feat of will over matter, because he somehow managed to freeze the airboard in place for a second and take an accurate shot. 

He hit a joint and the machine slid and fell. It was moving too fast to compensate for a loss of function in one of its legs. 

Killua did not wait, he darted for Gon and pulled him away from the falling constructor. Thankfully Gon’s airboard was still fully functional. Its rider slightly less so. Gon showed signs of dizziness. 

“We need to abort, I’ll take you to the corridor.”

“No, we must push forward. I got distracted, it won’t happen again.” Gon straightened up. “If we stop now he’ll just be better prepared next time.”

“There are at least ten constructors in this place, that I can detect.”

“I know, if we give him time, they’ll eventually come for us.”

The machine that attacked Gon had already got up and  was now looking for them.

“Gon, distract it for a moment.”

“Sure.”

Gon did not even ask why. Killua was swept away by warm feelings at this display of trust, but he could not dwell on it, not now. 

They separated, and while the robot was following Gon, Killua flew from behind and landed on it. It almost shook him off, but he quickly connected a Nanika-carrying drive to the constructor’s main frame. He did not have time to give her an order, because the arms started coming for him and he needed to take off before they hit him. He just hoped that she was going to know what to do. Or that she would at least stop the machine from moving. The Nanika drives had synchronised many times after their ride to the factory. He hoped that she had learned how to deal with constructors.

She had. The machine froze.

Killua came back and attached a cable to Nanika’s drive and opened a connection.

 

_Are you in control?_

 

_Aye._

 

_Good, can you isolate it completely? From the local network._

 

_Aye. I’ve disabled its modem._

 

_Great. Here’s the cable map, please help us cut off the network cables._

 

_Aye._

_And watch out for other robots that are not ours._

 

_Aye._

 

_Good luck, sweetheart._

 

With the help of the constructor, and Gon focusing on their task, the progress came faster. This motivated Killua even more to push past his pain and discomfort. 

The screeching and scraping did not die down, though. Killua felt that to the contrary, it was growing more and more intense. The remaining constructors were becoming more restless by the minute. He could see them stumble towards him. Their disjointed movements were shaky but with potential to become organised and targeted. 

He did not feel he was cutting fast enough. Every movement out of the corner of his eye made him jumpy. Especially that the sources of the movement multiplied. Pariston was calling upon more constructors.

“This is going too slow,” he said to Gon, over the audiolink.

“I know, and I think more constructors will come at us soon.”

“Yeah.”

“Nanika has an idea, she says we need to disable the wireless network first.”

“How? He almost killed you last time.”

“He did, but Nanika has a plan. We will send the hacked constructor to distract him. And in the meantime I’ll find the router he uses and destroy it.”

“The copy of Nanika that controls the constructor will be destroyed!”

“It will, she’s aware. But she was synced with all her copies before we started. So the data lost will just be from the last couple minutes.”

“I don’t like it.”

“I know, but if Ging loses and the constructors attack us en masse, we’re done for.” 

“What should I be doing?” 

“Go to the constructor and tell Nanika what to do, I can’t sync with her, wireless syncing right now is too risky. The audio link is already a weak spot.”

Killua wavered for a moment, but he couldn't deny Gon's logic. If they risked a wireless connection and Nanika got hacked, their whole plan would fail.

"OK," he said, and flew to the constructor.

 

 _You need to go to the centre and try to locate the wireless router._ He told her. It felt wrong, like a betrayal. A strange feeling, since he knew that five copies of Nanika existed on their trip, and that as long as one of them survived she was alive. They all held the same knowledge and personality once they synced. All the individual experiences of the copies fed to their shared consciousness. Nanika was five but she was also just one in the end. He had to think about it this way.  

 _Aye._  

 

_Once you locate it, try to disable it._

 

_Aye._

 

He did not explain more. It felt unnecessary. Also it would have been cruel, she would have agreed anyway. 

She moved the constructor towards the mass containing Ging and Pariston. Gon followed, maintaining distance. Killua went back to cutting, but monitored the situation. 

Nanika reached the mass and started to prod at it. Soon she seemed to try and climb. Then a cable dislocated from above and connected to the constructor. Killua took a shot at it, but more just descended on her, wrapping her up like a spider web. She was trying to fight it and it took all of Killua's restraint to focus on his job and not go to save her. 

He could see Gon hovering back for a moment and then coming in fast at the mass above the trapped Nanika copy. 

The closer he got to his target the tenser was his posture. Pariston obviously attacked his neural network instantly. That was the risk from the beginning, neural networks did not have the option of being taken offline without putting the person in a coma. 

Gon kept pushing forward, laser knife in hand. He flew high, close to the ceiling, and sunk his arm deep into the mass between the cables and the fleshy bits. He stabbed several times. 

The screeching and chattering stopped, the restless constructors froze. Killua sped up, calmer, more focused. Kind of relieved. 

He found himself in the spot where Gon finished cutting, but Gon was not there. A circle of wires hung like creepy hair. Gon did not appear to be between them. Just their robots, quickly jumping down to await more orders.

Killua started to fly around, looking for Gon and calling him on the audio link.  No response. 

Finally, he looked towards the mass and he noticed movement coming from it. Cables were descending again. He had been too focused on his missing boyfriend to note it before, but now he became suspicious..

When his eyes followed the trajectory of the cables, he noticed Gon lying on the ground beside what was left of the constructor hacked by Nanika. 

Gon was unconscious, but the wires were reaching for him, trying to wrap around him, and probably strangle him. Killua dashed towards Gon, shooting until he was close enough to start cutting with his laser knife. He slashed furiously, all his exhaustion made his muscles burn, but he was too stubborn and livid to give up.

Eventually they stopped coming. All available wires lay in pieces on the floor.  

Gon seemed unharmed, his suit had not become unsealed. His chest was moving ever so slightly.  Killua knelt beside him. 

“Pa- pa- pariston,” the mass started speaking. 

Killua turned to face it. “What?! Pariston, what!?” He yelled. “What are you doing, Pariston?”

“I’m Ging.”

“Ging? You tried to kill Gon just now, Gon! Your son!”

“Pariston downloaded himself into that body.” 

“Gon's body!” Killua yelled. “My beloved's body! Your son's body.”

“Yes, that's correct. But Pariston is in there. Pariston does not deserve to continue.”

Killua wailed, the reply was too cold, too detached to bear. He wanted to get up and set fire to the gross mass of cables and flesh and organs. Still working, still pumping in some caricature of life, while Gon lay barely moving on the ground. Rage fared in him. He should have done it in the first place,  just lit it up. This would have been over in minutes. 

He tried to collect his thoughts, to calm down. This guy, Ging, he did help them in the fight, he kept the constructors from coming. For all the good that it did. And Gon… Gon had wished to save him. Killua indulged in a long litany of curses. 

Though, if the body was stolen, why was it unconscious…? There was a single thin wire attached to Gon's helmet, through which Pariston must have snuck in.  Killua pulled it out. 

 Then he maxed out his own firewalls and connected. 

 

 _Killua_ , Nanika spoke instantly. 

 

There were no other processes going on. No attacks on his own neural network. He relaxed a bit. 

 

_Nanika, what happened?_

 

_The Pariston system downloaded itself. I have it walled off, but I had to turn Gon off._

_Why?_

_With biology the Pariston system is stronger. Just in the network I am_.

 

 _I see_ , Killua said. 

 

Strange conflicting feelings were tugging at him. He was holding Gon closely.

 

  _Can you switch Gon on again?_

 

_Aye, but it's not advisable now._

_Why?_

 

_The Pariston system will try to write over Gon. He will likely succeed._

 

_And later?_

 

_The Pariston is walled off, a full network diagnostic and reboot will remove him. Without the biology the Pariston cannot spread._

 

Okay, I can work with this, he thought. 

 

_Nanika, I'm leaving his safety in your hands._

 

_Aye, I’ll protect him, I love him._

 

_I know, Nanika, you’re the best._

  


He disconnected from her.

 

*

 

Killua was looking at the constructors present, choosing the best ones to carry them back up while at the same time thinking about which ones would be easiest to take apart and repurpose. He needed to build a portable power generator to keep Ging alive once he got him detached from the column and ceiling.  The chasms only knew what he was actually attached to, or how. 

Did he need to do it though, he pondered. Could he just maybe leave Ging down there? Time was of the essence. A full shutdown like the one Gon was under was not unheard of, but came with very clear dangers. The longer it lasted, the more difficult it would be to wake up the person. Damage to the brain and the nervous system could also happen. Certainly muscles were going to atrophy at least a little. Stalling on saving Ging seemed like a pointless waste of time. Gon was his priority, getting him home fast enough to wake him up superseded any consideration of Ging, did it not?

This whole situation, though… Gon’s state right now was a direct result of him trying to save his father. He told it to Killua in no uncertain terms. If Killua abandoned Ging here, would Gon ever forgive him? Besides Ging was too dangerous to be left alone, he would have had to be destroyed. Killua could not risk him going mad, like Pariston had. He had to remove Ging from this environment one way or the other. The right one required making an effort, trying. Enough to have something to show to Gon. His boyfriend was rational, he had to know that even with them both working together on getting Ging home alive the chances of success were slim. Right? If he fails Gon would understand, right? 

Killua’s mind was spiralling. Would Gon choose to trust him in the event he fails with Ging? Did he care enough about Killua? Was Gon even going to be interested in their relationship up there on the platforms? In the real world? Or did he fall for Killua because there was no one else? Did the loneliness of the pillars push him to it? Did it matter if Killua tried to save Ging if Gon was going to end things anyway? 

He tried to shake the doubt off. He had to ignore it because it paralysed him. Hope that it was all worth it was the only thing that could get him through this.

Alluka was right, of course, as always. Annoying little brat that she was. He had been in love with Gon when he made the choice to go down. He just had not realised it back then. In hindsight it was so obvious he wanted to laugh. Now he stood there alone, with Gon’s unconscious body at his feet, as Ging’s gross cadaver loomed above them both. He followed Gon to the brink of madness and possibly beyond. Yes, definitely beyond. He was standing there after all, coming up with plans, looking deep into his knowledge to remake the robots before him. Desperately trying not to think how impossible the task before him was. 

He finally decided on a constructor to keep. He connected to one of the copies of Nanika he had left. 

 

 

_Are you crying, Killua?_

 

_Yes._

 

_Why?_

 

 _Because nothing is right at the moment_ , he told her.

 

She was not synced, he could not risk the three copies of Nanika he had on drives to sync anymore. They needed to be clean for him to have even a sliver of a chance to get back up alone, so they could not know what was going on with Gon and his Nanika copy. The risk of a Pariston attack and corruption was too high.  They couldn’t know the truth. 

 

_But I’ll make it right, don’t worry. I just need to cry a bit._

 

He gave her instructions what to do with the robot. What he needed from it and from her. She was going to be their pilot for the journey up, but first she would help him redo the other constructor to carry Ging. The thing they build together was going to be piloted by her copy. That left one copy, one to hack doors and networks on the way. No spares. No backup plan. All or nothing. He shivered. 

The insides of his helmet got very uncomfortable due to the tears. He kept crying anyway while he was working.

His leg and hip hurt. Nothing was right. He had to hurry.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So i know... this ending... people did not react well to it. i honestly thought it's kind of obvious that it's not bad per se... that it mirrors canon.. but i guess it's not like that. I'm thinking of writing a short epilogue, but it hasn't come together yet. and i'm prioritising my regency fic rn. also tell me if you think it even needs an epilogue :D  
> anyway thank you to everyone who read till the end <3
> 
> [edit] I wrote the epilogue. It's the second work in the series. I decided to put it there separately not as a chapter to this, because i kind of like this ending here. but i also agree with people that closure is good.


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